The University of Louisville, a.k.a. U of L, is a public university located in Louisville, KY. It’s one of the oldest licensed universities west of the Allegheny Mountains and is authorized by the Kentucky General Assembly as a “Preeminent Metropolitan Research University.” The school was founded in 1798 by the General Assembly; they wanted a school of higher learning in the newly founded town of Louisville.

U of L is known for its successful athletic teams. The school’s teams are called the Cardinals, sometimes called Cards, and they’re the only NCAA team to win a BCS bowl game, to make it to the men’s basketball Final Four, College Baseball World Series and win a national championship for Track and Field since 2000. The Cards joined the Big East Conference on July 1, 2005; they were in Conference USA the previous 10 years. Adding to U of L’s strong fan base in Louisville, Southern Indiana and Western Kentucky (mainly in Bowling Green, Paducah and Owensboro) is the fact that fans from other parts of the state are coming out, particularly in the Northern Kentucky and Lexington/Frankfort areas. The school has radio affiliates all over the state currently; and since 2004, all of their games and coaches’ shows on WHAS-TV Louisville have been shown on all cable providers in Kentucky.

The football team’s home games are played in Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. In recent years, the Cardinals football team has gained national attention with a record of 38-11 since 2004 and ended in the top 6 in the final Bowl Championship Series and AP polls in 2 of the last 4 seasons. They were the 2006 Big East Conference champions and won the 2007 Orange Bowl. Under guidance from head coaches John L. Smith (from 1998-2002) and Bobby Petrino (from 2003-2007), the team made it to 9 back-to-back bowl games; this streak ended in 2007. Steve Kragthorpe became the new head coach on January 9, 2007; this was announced within 2 days after Petrino announced he was leaving Louisville for an Atlanta Falcons (of the NFL) head coaching position. Sports Illustrated named the Cards the nation’s #5 team in the 2007 preseason; they finished that season with a 6-6 record.