The current spread has us as 20 point dogs. I know they're ranked 9th and have a good team but... doesn't that seem a little high?

Its not like an Ohio fan to be overly confident but I feel like we have a good chance against Lville, how did my expectations get so out of whack?

And it opened at -16. Apparently, no one who gambles is looking at anything except the final score of the Sugar Bowl.

But whatever. I hope it goes to -30, and every player on Lvl believes it.

I think both teams are in a similar situation coming off last year. Is Louisville, like Ohio, the team that started off hot (began 9-0)? Or are they the team, like Ohio, that sputtered towards the finish line, with losses to a mediocre Syracuse and a below .500 UConn team? Or, like Ohio, are they the team that is more like their dominant bowl performance team? I think if both are the teams we saw in bowl games, this could be quite an exciting game.

Remember, we're not talking about a team with a necessarily stellar defense (36th overall with 23.8 points against). Then again, their offense wasn't overly dominant either, scoring 31.2 ppg, good for 51st in the country. Comparison, Ohio was 31.7 ppg on offense (42nd) and 24.8 points allowed (46th).

For what it's worth, Louisville beat two opponents last year by 20 or more points, Missouri State (FCS school) by 28 and Temple (insert joke about FCS quality) by 28 as well. Then again, Ohio lost two games by 20 or more points last year (Ball St and Kent St).

I'm optimistic about this one.

Not to mention the performance last year of the MAC against the Big East or the American or whatever its called now taking out its top teams. Everyone else in the league lost to the MAC but Louisville escaped by not playing a MAC school. Classic example of an overrated team clipped in the first week of play.

The top half of the MAC is at least as good as the top half of the AAC. Let's say NIU, Ohio, BSU, Toledo, Kent, and BG vs. Lvl, Cincy, Rutgers, UCF, Houston, and USF. It's the bottom of the conference (Kron, UMass, EMU) where the MAC falls off. Shocking, I know.

I'm not worried unless the place kicker also transferred to Louisville.

Looking past teams early in the season has been a problem for them at least since Strong arrived in '10.  That year they lost to UK (which finished 6-7 that season) and beat EKU by only 10 at home.  In '11 they beat Murray St 21-9, then lost to FIU and Terd.  Last year they barely won September road games vs. FIU and Southern Miss (0-12).

I'd hope not. We'll let crAckron be the MAC's Thug-U

Cincy and Rutgers would not be 2 or 3, at least not most of the time.