LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Louisville is better than Kentucky, which is better than Western Kentucky, which is better than Indiana.
Don’t throw anything at me.
Throw something at the schedule makers. They could have booked at least one game for U of L, UK, WKU or IU for Week Zero of the college football season. Instead, they chose to make us wait until Friday when Louisville collides with Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
Until then, we can watch the seven college games booked for Saturday — or take one final look at the rankings that are floating in advance of legitimate blocking and tackling.
Here is the most interesting tidbit I uncovered:
At least 44 computer or human polls have filed rankings for the 2023 season. Kenneth Massey, one of six respected contributors to the computer formula portion of the discontinued Bowl Championship Series formula, continues to present the composite rankings.
Massey also does this: He scores the composite rankings.
Here is what the overall numbers from the 44 sites show:
Louisville will kickoff the 2023 season as the nation’s 30th ranked team.
Kentucky, which will open its season next Saturday against Ball State, is No. 31.
Whoa. (Link to composite Massey rankings.)
For the record, you can find Western Kentucky at No. 64 and Indiana sits 82nd, one spot behind Georgia Tech, the Cards’ opening opponent.
Considering Mark Stoops and Kentucky have collected four consecutive double-figure victories over the Cardinals, I thought the Massey composite numbers deserved a Saturday mention.
Louisville’s best preseason ranking is 17th and its worst is 73rd.
The Cards start at No. 17 at Sonny Moore’s computer power rankings, which have WKU No. 22 and UK No. 37.
(Confession: I know little about Sonny Moore, other than his site includes Tennessee high school football rankings and carries an advertisement for a lawn mowing service with a 615 area code — and I cut my own grass.)
The top of Moore’s rankings look like most of the other predictions that I have seen, starting with Georgia, Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State and Tennessee.
The Cards also earned three other Top 20 rankings as well as four others in the Top 25.
Of the six formulas that contributed to the BCS, three posted preseason numbers;
Massey ranks Louisville No. 33.
Jeff Sagarin puts Louisville No. 42.
Richard Billingsley has Louisville No. 31.
According to Massey, the Cards are ranked 73rd by a site called football.Loudsound.org. Again, I have no connection to that site — although I have been accused of playing the music too loud.)
As for Kentucky?
The Wildcats rank as high as No. 23 at three sites.
What is the forecast for the Wildcats by the three sites with a BCS track record?
Sagarin puts Kentucky No. 37 while Billingsley has Kentucky No. 57. Massey’s numbers like UK at No. 27.
If you’re looking ahead to next weekend, this is the forecast from Jeff Sagarin’s predictor formula.
His numbers like Louisville over the Yellow Jackets by 11.03. Normally Sagarin subtracts 2.22 points for an early season home-field advantage, but I’m not sure how much of a homefield advantage Georgia Tech will have playing the game downtown at Mercedes-Benz Stadium instead of on campus.
At DraftKings Saturday, the Cards were the pick by 8 points.
Kentucky is the pick by 17.73 over Ball State at Kroger Field in Lexington. Seems low. DraftKings has UK favored by 26 1/2.
The formula likes Ohio State by 29.76 points over Indiana at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, which is in line with a point spread that has jumped from 28 1/2 to 30 over the last week.
WKU will welcome South Florida to Bowling Green next Saturday at 3:30 p.m. (EDT). Sagarin likes WKU by 16.49. On Saturday afternoon at DraftKings the point spread was Hilltoppers by 11 1/2.
Value play? Beware.
And hurry Week One.
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