Louisville Ranked Outside Top-25 in ESPN's 2026 Preseason FPI

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Up to this point, the Jeff Brohm era of the Louisville football program has been a success. He's guided the Cardinals to a 28-12 record, which has included an appearance in the ACC Championship game, broken losing streaks to Clemson and Kentucky, and upset wins against Miami and Notre Dame.

As we inch towards year four under his guidance, as expected, UofL is generating a good amount amount of hype both at the local and national level. Not only are they regarded as a team that is viewed as one of the favorites to get back to Charlotte, they are a team that many think could make their College Football Playoff debut.

That all being said, how well will Louisville perform in year four of the Jeff Brohm era? There might be roughly two months until kickoff, but we already have some idea thanks to the folks at ESPN.

Recently, they released the preseason iteration of their Football Power Index rankings. For those unfamiliar, FPI is a "predictive rating system designed to measure team strength and project performance going forward," vaguely similar to that of the SP+ college football metric.

While most college football pundits and analysts tab the Cardinals as a top-25 squad, FPI is more in line with SP+'s line of thinking. With a rating of 9.5, they come in at No. 27 in all of the FBS.

As it pertains to the ACC, they rank No. 4 in the league, behind Miami, Clemson and SMU. Ohio State, Texas, Notre Dame, Oregon and Georgia round out the top five overall.

FPI projects Louisville's win/loss record at 7.6-4.6, and gives the Cardinals just an 8.1 percent chance to win the ACC plus a 13.8 percent chance to make the College Football Playoff - both of which are fourth in the league.

Heading into Brohm's fourth season, many are extremely high on his Cardinals because of their high amount of talent. They are returning multiple impact playmakers, such as running back Isaac Brown, edge rusher Clev Lubin, linebackers Stanquan Clark and Antonio Watts. They also bring in the No. 5 transfer portal class in the spot, headlined by guys like Ohio State quarterback Lincoln Kienholz and Vanderbilt wide receiver Tre Richardson.

Louisville's 2026 Schedule with FPI Ratings and Rankings

Date	Team	FPI Rating	FPI Ranking
Sept. 6	vs. Ole Miss	16.0	14th
Sept. 11	Villanova	N/A	N/A
Sept. 19	SMU	11.1	24th
Sept. 26	Wake Forest	3.4	53rd
Oct. 3	at NC State	3.7	51st
Oct. 9	Florida State	9.3	28th
Oct. 17	at Syracuse	-0.8	70th
Oct. 31	Stanford	-3.3	80th
Nov. 7	at Georgia Tech	4.2	48th
Nov. 14	at North Carolina	4.9	42nd
Nov. 21	Pitt	6.6	36th
Nov. 28	at Kentucky	5.4	49th

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