There's plenty of building still going on around the University of Louisville football program. Athletic director Tom Jurich announced a partnership with Maker's Mark to help fund a new $8 million academic center in Papa John's Cardinal Stadium today.
He says that plans are being drawn up to expand the Howard Schnellenberger Complex weight room north toward the Trager Indoor Practice Facility, and he's also planning to expand the football locker room and training rooms.
Season tickets are nearly sold out, suite sales are strong and expectations are high.
At the same time, the conference landscape is tenuous for U of L and the Big East Conference. The new playoff arrangement has left the road to college football's championship structure a shaky proposition for the Big East.
But one thing that won't change for U of L, Jurich said this morning after a news conference to announce the partnership with Maker's Mark, is its scheduling stance.
"It's always tricky in scheduling because you have so many different philosophies," Jurich said. "Some people with their non-conference games want to make sure they're all home games and all wins. We don't do that. We want to play two very, very good BCS teams. We will play a I-AA school because we do have a big mortgage on that stadium and need home games to keep that paid. But we want to have a great schedule.
"We'd like to take on all comers, but we also want to make sure -- I've said this for many, many years, and it will be a staple that I always have -- we want to have a home-and-home. Because once you do those 2-for-1 deals, you'll eat your program alive."
Jurich's resolve could be tested depending on how the new playoff selection committee criteria is drawn up. (As a member of the BCS athletic directors advisory group, he could be part of that selection committee).
If strength of schedule is as prominent a feature of selection criteria as some have hinted it could be, schools like U of L outside the four "power" conferences could find themselves scrambling for marquee non-conference opponents, which already are at a premium.
Jurich would be open to some special games, like the early-season game against Georgia in the Georgia Dome that the Bulldogs eventually bought out of. But he insisted he's not willing to trade two road trips for one home game, even against top-level non-conference opponents.
ON OTHER CONFERENCE MATTERS, Jurich said he's not worried that the Cards' lack of a power conference affiliation will hurt recruiting.
"I don't worry about that because I look at the personnel who are recruiting for us," he said. "I looked at John L. Smith when he first came here, he was recruiting to Conference USA and might have put together the best team that was ever at this school. Bobby got the advantage of it, absorbing a lot of those athletes, but John L. got them to campus."
When a reporter described U of L's current conference situation as limbo, Jurich moved to differ with the characterization.
"Limbo is when you don't have a conference," Jurich said. "Limbo is not having a place to play. We have a place to play. We play in great cities, we play against great teams in a fantastic conference. I saw Phil Steele ranked us over the ACC. So the Big East was ranked over the ACC in football strength, so I think those kind of things will keep coming out. Does that mean we're in concrete, absolutely not. I've been up front with everybody. We will look at all of our options -- if there are options. But there have to be options before you can look at them."
QUICK KICKS: Jurich said he agreed with the Big East's decision to reach a settlement with Syracuse and Pittsburgh to leave the league after next season for an exit fee of $7.5 million. "You've got to move forward. It's not good for the league to have two members who don't want to be there," he said. . . . Big East spokesman Chuck Sullivan told WDRB.com this week that those exit fees will be placed in a reserve fund, and how they are used will be determined by the league's executive committee. . . . Jurich said he says the league should be in no hurry to name a new commissioner, and should be more focused on finding the right person. He said he has put forward some names, but wouldn't share them publicly, "I just think it needs to be somebody who has a lot of energy and a lot of passion for the league, like I do, who believes in the Big East and believes in its growth," Jurich said. "There's a lot of roadblocks out there, but there's a lot of roadblocks for every league."
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