Monday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Tonight’s Celebration of Life in honor of Denny Crum will be streamed live on ACC Network Extra. The stream link for the event, which is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. ET at the KFC Yum Center, is available here: https://uofl.me/3nQ0Rsb.

Limited free tickets are also still available to be claimed at this link: https://uofl.me/3pBL8gY.

—I joined Jeff Greer’s podcast to talk Denny Crum and a little Kenny Payne roster reconstruction.

—Justin Williams of The Athletic has a terrific piece on Jeff Brohm’s homecoming.

There’s a family reunion vibe inside the Schnellenberger offices these days. Brohm brought the whole crew with him, including younger brother Brian as offensive coordinator and older brother Greg as chief of staff, with both siblings reprising the roles they served under Jeff at Purdue. Even Jeff’s son, Brady, finishing out his senior year at Trinity, helps out in the recruiting department.

It extends beyond the Brohm bloodline. Nochta and offensive line coach Richard Owens are former players. Wide receivers coach Garrick McGee was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2016 when Jackson won the Heisman. Running backs coach Chris Barclay is a Louisville native. Special teams coordinator Ryan Wallace’s dad is the head coach at local Saint Xavier High.

“You get pulled into that family, brotherhood dynamic, too, because you feel empowered to share your opinion,” Nochta said. “We have people committed to this place, some continuity. You can trust that the right people are here.”

Jeff Brohm, right, led Purdue to the 2022 Big Ten title game against Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan Wolverines. (Aaron J. Thornton / Getty Images)

In 2017, Brohm took over a Purdue program that had just one winning season in its past nine and quickly turned the tide, going 7-6 in 2017 and taking the Boilermakers to back-to-back bowl games in his first two seasons. His final record was 36-34 over six seasons, but he led Purdue to nine wins in 2021 and eight in 2022, the program’s best two-year stretch since Drew Brees was under center.

A key aspect was the ability to pull off upsets and succeed in big games. Purdue went 9-2 in rivalry matchups against Illinois and Indiana under Brohm and landed top-five upsets over Ohio State in 2018 and Iowa and Michigan State in 2021. Satterfield’s four years at Louisville (25-24) were filled with similar ups and downs compared to Brohm’s run at Purdue, but Satterfield struggled in big games, finishing 2-7 against ranked opponents and a combined 0-6 against Clemson and Kentucky. It’s a fortune Brohm will look to reverse with the Cardinals, and one he takes pride in.

“That’s where I think my experience, hopefully, will help: mapping out a plan to win big football games. We won big football games at Purdue when we shouldn’t have or weren’t favored to win, so to speak,” Brohm said. “No question, big wins can really motivate your team to play even better, believe they are capable of winning every game. It’s important for the fan base. That’s vital to success, any type of momentum you can get.”

—Brett McMurphy’s first bowl projections for 2023 have Louisville facing Auburn in the Gator Bowl.

—Malik Cunningham is getting $200,000 in guaranteed money from the New England Patriots, more than five of the 12 players the franchise selected in the NFL draft. The former Cardinal QB may have caught a break going undrafted.

—The Louisville softball team found out yesterday that their season will continue in the NCAA tournament,

The Cards are the No. 3 seed in the Knoxville Regional and will face second-seeded Indiana on Friday at 3 p.m. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2.

—Kevin Sweeney of SI breaks down the best players still available in the college hoops transfer portal.

—A look at the ACC baseball standings reveals that Louisville needs to sweep last-place Florida State this weekend to guarantee itself a spot in next week’s ACC tournament. Any other result and the Cards, currently losers of seven straight, are going to need some help.

—The Field of 68’s newsletter sees the Empire Classic as college basketball’s best four-team early season event for next year.

Top four-team MTE Events

3. Rady Children’s Invitational

Teams: Iowa, Oklahoma, Seton Hall, USC

The highlight is USC, who just landed 4-star guard, Bronny James. The Trojans will be a main attraction next season and the two games against power conference competition will be a good test. It’ll also be fun to see how Iowa’s offense looks without a member of the Murray family.

2. Baha Mar Bahamas Hoop Championship

Teams: Georgia, Kansas State, Miami, Providence

This group may not stand out in terms of star power, but it’s likely going to be one of the most competitive MTEs. Georgia has dominated the transfer portal and looks to be much more competitive. Providence may have lost coach Ed Cooley, but new coach Kim English has a strong roster, while both Miami and Kansas State look to continue breakout years for both programs.

1. Empire Classic

Teams: Indiana, Louisville, Texas, UConn

Jokes aside, Louisville’s roster has improved, with several starting-caliber transfers and top-30 prospects. But this will be a tough field with reigning national champs UConn, along with powers Texas and Indiana. Expect the Longhorns and Hoosiers to make a few more portal moves, too.

—In New York, the Cards could square off against former recruit Mackenzie Mgbako, who picked Indiana on Friday.

—The Athletic looks at the biggest transfer portal winners and losers in college hoops. Louisville doesn’t fall into either category.

—Sara Nord is the guest on the latest episode of the Off the Walz podcast.

—T-Shirt Hooligan has launched a new student-athlete NIL-centric brand builder.

—Love a good JCPS shoutout on the timeline.

—Louisville Report’s Matt MacGavic has three bold predictions for the 2023 Cardinal football season.

—Coaches talk anonymously to The Athletic about tampering in college football.

—Former U of L WR Tyler Harrell is transferring from Alabama to Miami.

—Sports Illustrated discusses the next move for all five of the major conferences in college athletics.

The ACC

This week in Amelia Island, administrators from the ACC gather for their own spring meetings.

While the Pac-12 and Big 12 fight their western expansion battle, the ACC is, in many ways, fighting internally.

A subset of seven schools in the 14-member conference has coalesced over what many of them describe as an untenable situation. Officials from the seven schools, led by Florida State and Clemson, have met a handful of times over the past several months, with their lawyers examining the grant-of-rights to determine just how unbreakable it is.

Per the grant-of-rights, each ACC school gives ownership of its broadcasting rights to the league in a deal with ESPN that runs through 2036. If a school breaks the deal, the ACC will continue to own the TV rights of any of that school’s home games, according to the contract.

The ACC’s options are quite limited, both for the group of seven and the league as a whole.

1. Seek additional revenue from ESPN. This is a long shot given the network’s current situation. ESPN, in the midst of a wave of personnel cuts, is also negotiating deals with UFC/WWE, the NBA and Pac-12. While commissioner Jim Phillips and a few ACC presidents met recently with the network over this issue, no significant cash infusion appears imminent.

2. Secede from the league. Some of the schools, possibly the most frustrated lot such as FSU and Clemson, could pay the $120 million exit fee and hope they can break a grant-of-rights agreement that most attorneys—though maybe not their own—say is airtight. That then leaves a very big question: Where do they go? The SEC and Big Ten seem quite comfortable with their current membership, but potential western realignment could trigger them to expand more.

3. Create another league. If the seven agree to dissolve the current grant-of-rights agreement (we don’t know yet if this is a possibility), they may add a couple of more schools and begin their own association in hopes of it being more lucrative. This comes with its own issues, of course. You’d need a broadcast partner or private equity to fund such an endeavor. And, as one official asks, “Will it really be that much more lucrative?”

Basically, there are no easy answers.

—Kentucky Derby winner Mage will be the only Derby runner entered in this Saturday’s Preakness.

—Kentucky is yet to produce any jackpot wins since 2014, making it the unluckiest lottery state in America, according to Casinorabi.

—Eric Crawford writes about the build-up to Louisville’s final goodbye to Denny Crum.

—Russ Smith discusses getting the Siva/Smith backcourt back together this summer.

—U of L women’s soccer has landed Binghamton transfer Maya Anand.

—The Athletic has updated its early college basketball rankings for next season. Duke, which just got point guard Jeremy Roach back today, is No. 1.

—The intra-conference transferring continues in the ACC, where former Florida State C Naheem McLeod is transferring to Syracuse.

—Reece Gaines has a good story about what sold him on Denny Crum as a head coach.

—Sam Hartman headlines 247 Sports’ list of the best transfer quarterbacks in college football. Here’s hoping his 2023 appearance at Cardinal Stadium looks a lot like his 2022 stop.

—Rick Bozich shares his memories of Denny Crum.

—The U of L men’s golf team began play at the NCAA Championships this morning. The Cards are in the big dance for the 8th time in the last 10 years.

—Multiple 2024 football recruits have locked in June visits to U of L.

—And finally, the Mike Rutherford Show kicks off the week from 3-6 this afternoon on 1450AM/96.1 FM. You can stream the show here.