Louisville Cardinals among top 15 in 1st College Football Playoff rankings of 2023 season
Louisville was 13th in the first College Football Playoff rankings of the season, released Tuesday night.
Louisville and Florida State are the ACC's lone representatives in the CFP rankings. The Seminoles were fourth.
The Cardinals were No. 25 in the CFP rankings on Nov. 22, 2022, after defeating N.C. State, then ranked 25th at the time of the game. Louisville fell out of the rankings the next week after losing to Kentucky, 26-13, in the Governor’s Cup in the regular-season finale. Before that, Louisville hadn’t cracked the top 25 since ranking 13th in the final poll in 2016. The Cardinals' highest ranking was four weeks prior to that as the fifth-ranked team in the country on Nov. 13, 2016.
The 2016 season was also the last time Louisville had a 7-1 record. This season, the squad had a slipup against Pitt but remains in position to make the ACC championship game for the first time. All it has to do is win its final three conference games, starting with Virginia Tech at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. The Cardinals then host Virginia five days later before wrapping up conference play at Miami on Nov. 18.
U of L missed the 2016 ACC championship game via a head-to-head tiebreaker with then-Atlantic Division mate Clemson, which beat the Hokies, then in the Coastal Division, 42-35, for the conference crown.
The CFP poll is the third to include Louisville. The Cardinals are ranked 15th in the US LBM Coaches Poll and AP Top 25 rankings.
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Reach Louisville football, women's basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at acubit@gannett.com and follow her on X at @Alexis_Cubit.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: College Football Playoff rankings 2023: Louisville Cardinals in top 15
