LOUISVILLE — Louisville athletic director Josh Heird is a runner, logging about 40 miles per week. He usually hits the road in the late afternoon or early evening, unspooling the workday in his mind as he goes. When the topics are stressful, his pace accelerates—Heird found himself running sub-6:30 miles one day last week, as contract negotiations with football coach Jeff Brohm reached a crucial stage.
There is a never-ending menu of pace-pushing, pulse-quickening issues in college sports today. That’s the case on every campus, but Louisville sits in the crosshairs of a financial conundrum as much as any school. Blessed with ACC affiliation and revenue but burdened by competing against some programs that will always have more resources, the Cardinals have chosen a seemingly quixotic path: embrace fiscal irresponsibility while advocating for a new revenue model.
