The Louisville Cardinals 2024 football season can be summed up in one word: Frustrating.
Coach Jeff Brohm’s team lost by seven points each to Notre Dame, SMU and Miami (Fla.), three teams with chances to be in the College Football Playoff later this month. Louisville might have been in that mix if it had not dropped a game at Stanford a couple weeks ago, a game in which they led the then 2-7 team by two scores in the fourth quarter.
The Louisville Cardinals 2024 football season can also be summed up in another word: Satisfying.
The losses aside, Brohm’s team did post a convincing win at Clemson, beating the Tigers for the first time in program history. Then this past Saturday, the Cards dominated Kentucky 41-14 to end the Wildcats’ six-year stranglehold on the in-state rivalry.
In addition, Louisville finished the season at 8-4, making them bowl eligible and in line for a matchup against another respectable team. A bowl win and another solid job of recruiting in the transfer portal could put the Cards in line for bigger things next season.
The Cardinals and the remaining 81 eligible teams will learn where they will play their bowl games this Sunday. In anticipation of that, BetKentucky offers one last odds board on where UofL may be headed later this month or in January.
A reminder, these odds are for infotainment purposes only. You will not find them at any authorized Kentucky sports betting apps, like BetMGM or Fanatics.
Bowl | Location | Conference Opponent | Odds | Percentage Chance |
Duke’s Mayo Bowl | Charlotte, NC | Vs. SEC | -350 | 77.8% |
Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl | El Paso, TX | Vs. ACC or Pac12 | +1350 | 6.9% |
Military Bowl | Annapolis, MD | Vs. AAC | +1800 | 5.3% |
The Field/No Bowl |
|
| +900 | 10.0% |
Odds are provided by our Kentucky sports betting experts at BetKentucky.com
There are worse places to be on Jan. 3 than Charlotte, and the Duke’s Mayo Bowl could give Louisville a chance to beat two SEC schools this season – a feat Kentucky couldn’t accomplish in eight games this year.
However, Louisville’s landing spot this bowl season will likely depend on how the College Football Playoff selection committee picks the seven at-large teams for the tournament. There’s a better-than-zero chance the conference gets two bids, but if it gets only one, that will be one more team in the mix for the ACC’s bowl bids.
USA Today photo by Jamie Rhodes.
The big question on the minds of many Louisville fans isn’t which team will play the Cardinals. Instead, it’s which players will be available to play in the bowl game.
Several Cardinals with aspirations of playing in the NFL may choose to skip the bowl game and instead focus on preparing for pre-draft workouts. Other players may decide to leave Louisville via the transfer portal and ink an NIL deal with another team.
BetKentucky will continue to give you our latest analysis of Louisville and its bowl game in the weeks ahead. Also, be sure to visit the site and get the latest Kentucky sportsbook promos for the licensed operators available in the Bluegrass State.
Year | Bowl | Result |
2023 | Holiday Bowl | Loss, 42-28 against USC |
2022 | Fenway Bowl | Win, 24-7 against Cincinnati |
2021 | First Responder Bowl | Loss, 31-28 against Air Force |
2020 | No Bowl Game |
|
2019 | Music City Bowl | Win, 38-28 vs. Mississippi State |
Just like last year, Brohm has transformed this year’s team through the transfer portal. UofL brought in a quarterback and the hope is that Shough will finally stay healthy and can produce more consistently than Jack Plummer did last season.
The Cardinals’ offense looks almost completely new after the team lost Plummer, wide receiver Jamari Thrash and running backs Jawhar Jordan and Issac Guerendo graduated or applied for the NFL draft. However, the defense brought back eight starters from a team that was one of the toughest against the run in the country. That unit is led by defensive lineman and All-American candidate Ashton Gillotte, defensive back Benjamin Perry and linebacker T.J. Quinn.
USA Today photo by Orlando Ramirez
Author
Steve is an accomplished, award-winning reporter with more than 20 years of experience covering gaming, sports, politics and business. He has written for the Associated Press, Reuters, The Louisville Courier Journal, The Center Square and numerous other publications. Based in Louisville, Ky., Steve has covered the expansion of sports betting in the U.S. and other gaming matters.
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