2023-24 Louisville Cardinals Football Bowl Projections

Fact Checked by Nate Hamilton

The Louisville Cardinals’ dimming CFP hopes took a bit of a beating over the weekend, with Jeff Brohm’s team falling at home to the unranked Kentucky Wildcats to finish the regular season with a 10-2 record. Despite the Governor’s Cup upset, Year One of the Brohm era has been a smashing success for the Cardinals, with a trip to the ACC title game awaiting them on Saturday and the school’s first double-digit win season since 2013 secured.  

Ahead of Saturday’s showdown against the No. 5 FSU Seminoles in Charlotte, which oddsmakers from ESPN BET Kentucky list the Cardinals as a three-point underdog, BetKentucky.com broke down the latest odds on Louisville’s potential bowl game landing spot for the year.  

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Where Will Louisville Wind Up This Bowl Season?

Right now, the odds on favorite to land the Cardinals is the Capital One Orange Bowl, which currently has -900 hypothetical odds. 

Learn More: Best College Football Betting Sites.

BowlLocationConference OpponentOdds% Chance
Capital One Orange BowlMiami, FLSEC or Big 10-90090.0%
TaxSlayer Gator BowlJacksonville, FLSEC+19005.0%
Other+90010.0%

The odds above won't be found on Kentucky betting apps.

The overwhelming favorite to land Louisville in 2023 continues to be the Capital One Orange Bowl, which traditionally hosts the ACC champion each year, regardless of how the Cardinals fare on Saturday evening. Louisville last played in the Orange Bowl in 2006, when Bobby Petrino led the Cardinals to an 11-1 regular season record, before beating Wake Forest of the ACC (24-13) to pull off the program’s first BCS bowl game victory.  

The only other “New Year’s Six” bowl game win in school history came in 2012, when Charlie Strong led the Cardinals to a 33-23 win over Florida in the Allstate Sugar Bowl, capping off a 12-2 season.  

Fast forward 11 years, and Brohm has a definitive chance to get the Cardinals back into such a game in Charlotte on Saturday when Louisville looks to take down the mighty Seminoles of Florida State in the ACC football championship game.   

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What Are Louisville’s Past Results In Bowl Games?

Since the turn of the millennium, the Cardinals have played in 18 bowl games, going 9-9 in those postseason contests. To put a more recent spin on it, Louisville has played in 11 bowl games, going 6-5 in those contests that were held in Boston, Texas, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina and Louisiana.

It seems that this year, Brohm and his players could very well wind up returning to the Sunshine State or add New York or Texas to the laundry list of bowl game destinations that the program has played in since Charlie Strong’s days with the program.  

SeasonBowl GameOpponentResultFinal Record
2022-23Fenway Bowl (Boston, MA)Cincinnati24-7 W8-5
2021-22First Responder Bowl (Dallas, TX)Air Force31-28 L6-7
2020-21Not Eligible4-7
2019-20Music City Bowl (Nashville, TN)Mississippi State38-28 W8-5
2018-19Not Eligible2-10

ACC Bowl Ties, Affiliations

The ACC Champion will automatically go to the Orange Bowl if it’s not selected for the College Football Playoff. If the top ACC team is in the CFP, the highest-ranked available team will go in the Orange.

The ACC bowl slots will mostly be based on the matchups that will potentially generate the most interest. There's not a true pecking order.


College Football Playoff Semifinal: If Selected


Capital One Orange Bowl: Highest-ranked available ACC team, if not the ACC Champion


First Tier of Bowls
– New Era Pinstripe Bowl vs Big Ten
– Pop-Tarts Bowl vs Big 12
– Duke’s Mayo Bowl vs Big Ten
– Wasabi Fenway Bowl vs American Athletic
– Military Bowl Presented by Peraton vs American Athletic
– ReliaQuest Bowl vs SEC (or Big Ten)
– San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl vs Pac-12
– TaxSlayer Gator Bowl vs SEC
– Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl vs Pac-12


Second Tier of Bowls


– Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl vs AAC, Pac-12 or SEC
– TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl vs SEC or AAC
– SERVPRO First Responder Bowl vs SEC or AAC or Pac-12

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Author

Christopher Boan is a staff writer for BetKentucky.com. He has covered sports and sports betting for more than seven years and has worked for publications such as ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.

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