Big East Football: Louisville Beats South Florida, May be BCS Bound

The Louisville Cardinals closed out the regular season with a 34-24 road victory over South Florida to finish 7-5 overall and 5-2 in conference play.

The win clinched at least a share of the Big East championship.

While it is not a done deal, only two things needs to happen for Louisville to earn the automatic bid to a BCS bowl game.

One of those things could happen tonight if West Virginia can knock off Pittsburgh.

The other could happen either tomorrow or next week, if Cincinnati loses one of their remaining two games.

The only two conference losses for Louisville have come to Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, therefore these are the only teams they do not have the tiebreaker over.

If these two do not happen, Louisville will likely be on the outside looking in, but with the way things have gone recently, this is possibly the most likely scenario.

The Cardinals may not be deserving of a BCS bowl game, but those are the rules that are in place and either way, this is a young, improving team that will be solid for years to come behind head coach Charlie Strong.

After losing four of their first six games, Louisville has bounced back to win five of their last six games.

The defense has been solid all season, but the emergence of true freshman quarterback Teddy Bridgewater has been the difference.

Bridgewater has only thrown nine touchdowns to go along with nine interceptions, but had his best game of the year in the season finale, throwing for 241 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions.

Whether or not Louisville will make a BCS bowl game remains to be seen, but either way this is a program on the rise that is certain to be a contender for conference championships in the years to come.