Truth in Reportage. The whole idea for this post was generated by Matt Baker’s contemplation this morning at theathletic.com.

Which fascinating it’s-the-off-season-so-whatever-to-write-about rabbit hole boiled down to this query: Which school is the worst of the eventual best of list — Arizona State, North Carolina, , Louisville, South Carolina, Stanford, Utah, Wisconsin — that Nick Saban could reasonably have led to a national title?

I hearken back for just a moment to my last post, where I not totally regrettably asked my readers to suggest article topics for these fallow summer months on the collegiate sports scene. Baker, and we’re far from alone, obviously is searching for stuff to keep readers interested until games kickoff in August.

It worked.

After going through a bunch of metrical data points, Baker arrived at those possible schools.

Of course, you must have realized by now, the winner is the University of Louisville Cardinals.

Otherwise, I wouldn’t have jumped to my keyboard before even finishing my morning joe to share the conjecture to those of you tuned in.

Baker’s process started with all the schools at the highest level. Then eliminated them using different factors. (Do not ask me to explain them. I couldn’t were I even to try.)

I: On Field Success.

II: Recruiting Average.

III: Five Star Ceiling.

IV: Money.

V: NFL Draft.

VI: Proven Potential.

Which arithmetic elimination process parried the list down to 33 schools. Then the writer eliminated all which had never claimed a natty in the AP Poll era (since 1936), leaving the Cards and those others listed above.

Baker completes his pondering with this quote: Pair a Saban defense with 2016 Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson, and a national title doesn’t seem outlandish.

* * * * *

I shall now remind readers what I wrote about Howard Schnellenberger when he jumped ship, about John L. Smith when he took his talents elsewhere, about Bobby Petrino when he thought the grass was greener outside Jefferson County, and when Charlie Strong went Lone Star.

If not exactly a sleeping giant, Louisville football has since The Pipe been legitimately on the cusp of becoming a legit national playah. Those guys were foolish to move on.

But none of those dudes was willing to stay the course.

I’m also reminded about an article a decade or maybe two ago where one of the astute national pigskin scribes — I believe Stewart Mandel — placed all the big schools in various tiers. Elite. Next Best. Etc.

In that column, the one school he didn’t tier was U of L. His reasoning was the same as mine. The Cards were poised to rise to levels previously unreached.

Where they remain.

But there is a difference now.

Jeff Brohm ain’t goin’ nowhere.

He’s a homie.

Cardinal blood courses through his veins. The love of the school is wrapped in the helix of his DNA.

No, he’s not Nick Saban.

But he’s a proven commodity and one of these years under his tutelage all the tumblers might fall in place.

— c d kaplan