Sporting News Includes Louisville in Early 2021 Bowl Projections
(Photo of Louie: Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - We're roughly two and a half months until the start of the 2021 college football season, so naturally, it's around that time where we will start to see some way-too-early bowl projections. Louisville might be coming off of a disappointing 4-7 campaign that saw them miss out on going bowling, but Sporting News believes the Cardinals won't have to wait long to reach the postseason.
As part of their first round of bowl predictions, which included the College Football Playoff and New Year's Six bowls, they are projecting that Louisville will play face the Northwestern Wildcats in the Pinstripe Bowl on Wednesday, Dec. 29.
First played in 2010, the Pinstripe Bowl, as baseball fans can probably guess, is held in the famed Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. The bowl has had Atlantic Coast Conference and Big Ten conference tie-ins since the 2014 season, featuring past matchups such Wisconsin-Miami and No. 22 Pitt-Northwestern. There was no Pinstripe Bowl in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many fans might be bearish on Louisville making a bowl following their losing campaign in 2020, but college football metrics seem to think otherwise. ESPN's Football Power Index, or FPI, currently has the Cardinals with a projected win-loss record of 6.5-5.5, and their SP+ metric has them with an "expected wins' mark of 6.99. For all intents and purposes, both are projecting Louisville to go 7-5.
Louisville will kickoff the 2021 season against Ole Miss in the annual Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Ga. on Monday, Sept. 6.
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