Louisville's Recent Rise In Football Rankings Bolsters National, Local Television Profile

Louisville's "ascent into national contention" in football is bolstering the school's status as a "bigger national television draw than previous years," according to Steve Jones of the Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL. Locally, the team's success -- ranked No. 3 in the AP Poll -- also "appears to have contributed to a boost in TV ratings within the Louisville market for college football games in general." ESPN VP/Programming & Acquisitions Nick Dawson said, "I worked on college basketball for seven years, and every single year Louisville was the top-rated market for us for college basketball. Obviously, that's driven certainly by (the Univ. of Kentucky) as well. ... What we're learning here is that when that football team is successful, Louisville is a big-time college market that embraces football as much as they do basketball." Then-No. 10 Louisville's 63-20 rout of then-No. 2 Florida State on Sept. 17 "attracted the sixth-largest TV audience" of any college football game this season, and it was the "largest for any noon kickoff." Jones notes the local rating for the FSU game was "considerably higher than the local rating for any U of L men's basketball game -- and there have been countless -- that has ever aired on an ESPN network" ( Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 9/30 ).