LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Not only is preseason watch list season in full swing with the 2025 college football season just under three months away, preseason polls are starting to get released.
One of the first major preseason college football polls to drop comes from long time college football expert Phil Steele, who included his preseason rankings as part of his recently released his 2025 College Football Preview magazine.
The Louisville football program is coming off of a successful year two under Jeff Brohm, and are gearing up for another run at the ACC Championship – and potentially beyond – in year three. As such, Steele’s 2025 Power Poll – essentially his preseason poll calculated based on the talents and strengths of each team – is high on the Cardinals entering year two under Brohm, placing them at No. 29.
Going by the Power Poll, the Cardinals will be taking on a tough schedule this upcoming season. Louisville will face three teams in the Power Poll’s top 25, including Clemson at No. 6, Miami at No. 14 and SMU at No. 23. Penn State, Notre Dame, Texas, Alabama and Ohio State round out the top five overall.
Due to this tougher schedule, Louisville falls a few spots in Steele’s preseason top 40, which is a ranking where Steele projects how teams will finish the season rather than where they will start. Here, he predicts the Cards will finish the 2024 season ranked 34th.
“I think Miller Moss will have a huge year for the Cards and RB’s Brown and Watson and a great combo,” Steele wrote. “The only reason down here is a tough schedule but they can overcome that.”
This difficult schedule also plays a role in where Steele believes the Cardinals will finish in the ACC race. In fact, he placed Louisville in a tie with North Carolina for sixth in his 2025 ACC Forecast. Clemson takes the top spot, Miami and SMU are tied for second, while Georgia Tech and Florida State are tied for fourth.
That being said, he doesn’t completely rule out Louisville getting back to the ACC Championship Game.
“This may be Brohm’s best team and they are an ACC contender,” Steele wrote.
Additionally, Steele named one Louisville player to two of his 2025 Preseason All-American teams, as well as eight Cardinals to the Preseason All-ACC Teams.
Louisville finished the 2024 season with a 9-4 overall record, which included a win over Washington in the Sun Bowl, and snapping losing streaks to Clemson and Kentucky. Year three under Brohm is scheduled to kick off against Eastern Kentucky on Saturday, Aug. 30 at L&N Stadium.
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