Louisville football: What the Houston win means for the Cardinals

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Houston Cougars beat the Oklahoma Sooners this afternoon in one of the biggest wins in program history. What does this mean for Louisville football?

Houston football has been on the rise over the past two seasons. Louisville football lost to the Cougars at home last season, giving them one their top tier wins for the 2015 campaign. Beating the Sooners this afternoon was huge for a program looking to sneak their way into the 2016 college football playoff. With that being said, what does this win for Houston mean for the Louisville Cardinals?

It has been said many times over the offseason that Louisville’s three biggest games of the 2016 season are Florida State, Clemson, and Houston. The Associated Press ranked all three of those schools within their top-15 preseason poll. FSU came in at number four, Clemson at number two, and Houston at number 15.

Two of those three games will be on the road for the Cardinals as they also look to be a dark-horse candidate for crashing the college football playoff. Louisville will have every opportunity this season to show why they are worthy to be among the top four teams in the country. With Houston winning today, the Cardinals could be playing three, top five teams in the country, therefore skyrocketing their strength of schedule.

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Houston may not lose a game until they play Louisville in late November. Here is their schedule for the rest of 2016:

Talk about a cake walk for the Cougars for the rest of the season, until the Louisville game obviously. As the season progresses, players get hurt and teams are impacted big-time. This is assuming that Houston doesn’t lose a top player this season.

The Cardinals could, realistically, be walking into Houston on November 17th, getting ready to face an undefeated Houston football team. What an opportunity for Louisville to show why they are worthy of a New Year’s Six Bowl or sneak into the Playoff as the ACC’s second team among the top four.

Either way, Louisville can only gain good things from Houston winning today. This win almost ensures that Houston will be a top ten, if not top five ranked team all season long. If the Cardinals drop a tough Thursday night game against the Cougars, it will be seen as not a huge deal. If they win, it would be seen as affirmation of Louisville’s spot among the best.

One can only guess as to what the committees look at exactly, in terms of which teams are worthy of a high-level bowl game at the end of the year. One thing is for sure, Houston beating number three Oklahoma only can mean good things for the Louisville Cardinals football team.