Indiana football expected to cancel 2024 game against Louisville at L&N Stadium
BLOOMINGTON — IU has withdrawn from a scheduled 2024 road game in its three-year football series with Louisville, the second game in the series Indiana has chalked off, the USA TODAY Network confirmed through a source.
Saturday's game against the Cardinals at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis will be the only game of the series played as originally scheduled.
IU previously signaled its intent to call off a 2025 home game against Louisville, as reported by the Bloomington Herald-Times.
The cancellation affecting next season will come with a $1 million penalty. It falls within a two-year window requiring "the canceling party" to pay for the inconvenience, according to the series contract.
Because the cancellation has yet to be finalized as of Monday night, Louisville program officials were unable to comment on the report.
A department source told IndyStar IU intends to add a home game, likely against an FCS opponent, in 2024. The revenue from the new game is expected to cover the cancellation penalty.
The move comes against the backdrop of a conference softening its football scheduling requirements in the wake of an expanded College Football Playoff. At the advent of the original four-team playoff, the Big Ten announced programs would be expected to schedule at least one Power Five nonconference opponent each season, and programs would be limited in how often they could schedule FCS opponents. With the playoff and the Big Ten both expanding, those requirements have loosened substantially.
Indiana is still scheduled to host both Florida International and Charlotte in 2024. That would leave a window for the Hoosiers to schedule an FCS opponent without jeopardizing postseason ambitions. FBS schools are only allowed to count one FCS win per year toward bowl eligibility.
Louisville, meanwhile, has one FCS opponent on its 2024 schedule already — an Aug. 31 home game against Austin Peay. The Cardinals had been scheduled to take on Indiana at home on Sept. 7, the second leg of what had been initially planned as a three-game series beginning with Saturday's game in Indianapolis and continuing with games in Louisville in 2024 and in Bloomington in 2025.
Speaking earlier this week, Louisville coach Jeff Brohm said
"I think for our fans' sake, any time you can play some in-state rivalries and some true rivalries regionally, it's always great to play," he said. "It's great for the fanbase. They want to see it. They're going to come out and watch and support it. Sometimes you have players that know each other as well, so I'm all for any type of regional rivalry we can continue to keep and even add to the mix. I think it's great for our fans and our team."
Louisville Courier Journal reporter Alexis Cubit contributed.
Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Louisville football: Indiana likely to cancel 2024 game at L&N Stadium
