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I’m hesitant to say it as things can always get worse, but as of this moment, we are officially getting into the thick of the stupidity that a coaching change can bring out of multiple fanbases. While there are many qualified candidates out there, we all know who the target is. I don’t have to tell you all of the reasons why Jeff Brohm is a great fit at UofL (Nick has a good breakdown here). Instead, I’d like to address a recurring assertion I keep seeing from Purdue and Big Ten football fans alike: “Leaving Purdue for Louisville is a lateral move.”

Is it though? Let’s try to take Brohm out of the equation and break it down by the categories that define the attractiveness a program: Program Tradition, Recent Success, Recruiting Base, Conference Affiliation, and Facilities.

Program Tradition

When I first started debating this, I thought Purdue would have the advantage here. Especially when I considered that the Boilermakers love attempting to hang their hats on is the fact that they have been playing football in a power conference since they joined the Big Ten in 1896. Through the years Purdue has built a very fun football tradition in West Lafayette. A tradition that includes 280 NFL draft picks, 20 consensus All-Americans, a big bass drum, the “All-American” marching band, and a horrifying mascot to name a few.

However, these individual successes and fun traditions do not appear to have translated to the gridiron. Just because Purdue has a long tradition of playing power football, that doesn’t mean it’s been a rich tradition.

While Purdue has been playing football nearly 30 years longer than the Cardinals, UofL, a program not historically known for its football program, boasts an almost identical (better) winning percentage to Purdue’s. UofL not only went to its first bowl game (1957) before Purdue (1966), but the Cardinals have also enjoyed more bowl trips in its short history. Since Jeff Brohm was in pads UofL has won more New Year’s 6 Bowls and Heisman Trophies than Purdue has in their entire 130-years of playing football, with their last coming in the 1978 Peach Bowl season.

Even with the limited success that Purdue has had, almost everything notable came before the Korean War. Many schools like Purdue have fun football traditions and suffer from chronic mediocrity (see: the entire state of Mississippi). So while you can have long-standing traditions, that doesn’t mean it’s a winning one.

Recent Success

As previously mentioned, the Cardinals have won more New Year’s 6 Bowl Games and Heismans since Jeff Brohm (’89-’93) was playing under Schnelly, than Purdue has in its entire history. We could leave it there, but I thought it would be fun to take a closer look.

Prior to Joe Tiller’s arrival in ‘97, Purdue only played in five bowl games and hadn’t made a trip to one in over 15 years. Tiller, regarded by many Boilermaker fans as one of their greatest coaches in their modern era, would lead PU to 10-straight bowl games, but win just 4 of them (’97 and ’98 Alamo, ’02 Sun, ’07 Motor City). Also, before Brohm took over last year, there had only been one coach (Tiller, .584) with a winning average in approximately 35 years.

In comparison, Louisville would quickly ascend the ranks from D-1 Independence to C-USA, to Big East, to AAC, to finally the ACC. During this span, UofL would go to 18 bowl games with 5 different head coaches and win half of them. This impressive run would include a Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and a Heisman trophy. The Cards would also finish 9 seasons with Top 25 rankings, 2 with Top 10 finishes, and ascend to as high as #3 in the AP Poll twice. Purdue would only finish 5 years with a Top 25 ranking, and never inside the Top 10.

More recently, before Brohm drove in with his ’04 Honda Accord, Purdue won only 9 games in a four-year span. The Boilermakers wouldn’t beat a Top 25 team for the first time since 2011 until this year. Speaking of Top 25, PU entered the AP poll this year for the first time in over a decade. Yikes. Side note: All of this makes Brohm’s early successes even more impressive.

Recruiting Base

“But Purdue is recruiting better and has a better roster!” While it’s undeniable that Purdue is currently recruiting at a higher level than UofL, thanks to Brohm/not thanks to Bobby, that could all flip as soon as he makes the trip back down to Louisville (if he does).

In regards to the overall roster, according to Bill Connelly’s S&P+ Analytics UofL’s 5-year and 2-year recruiting averages rank 34th and 28th, respectively. Whereas Purdue ranks 69th (nice) and 62nd. Brohm is on the verge of a huge recruiting breakthrough this year, considering he doesn’t leave. But to suggest Purdue has a better foundation at this exact moment is a bit of a stretch.

Louisville also has a huge recruiting advantage that Purdue doesn’t: The South. As strange as it is, the Ohio River separates what many consider to be the Midwest and the South. Luckily for Louisville, it sits just south of Ohio and gets to reap the benefits of having brand recognition all the way down to Coral Gables.

This advantage cannot be stressed enough. In 2018, Georgia and Florida were named two of the Top 4 best states for recruiting elite talent. Just in last year’s recruiting class alone, UofL had 12 players sign from Florida, and another 7 from Georgia. Purdue would reel in 5 players, total, from both states.

It’s not hard to imagine what Brohm could do with his already deep connections in Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. Then throw in two of the best-recruiting pools in the country on top of all that and Coach Brohm would be sitting quite nicely.

Conference Affiliation

Let me start off by saying that I believe the Big Ten is the second-best football conference, only trailing the SEC. Both conferences have long winning traditions, have many of the sports’ premier programs, and make obscene amounts of money through their TV networks. They both attract some of the sports’ most talented players and athletes, and it’s no mystery why. However, that’s not to say that the ACC is a humongous step-down, considering the ACC has won more national championships than the Big Ten has since the inception of the BCS. The ACC is also set to bring in its own network next year, which will be another huge step forward for a power conference that doesn’t sit too far behind the Big Ten and SEC.

Where this conversation goes sideways is when Purdue fans and some media outlets suggest that while the Big Ten is a better, stronger football conference, that Brohm has an easier path to the playoffs if he stays in the Big Ten. That claim directly contradicts itself and makes little sense.

For UofL to make it to the CFP, it needs to get over one huge hurdle, and that is beating Clemson. If Louisville has a great season and takes down Clemson in the process, there’s not exactly any more behemoths from the ACC-Coastal waiting for them in the ACCCG that would stand in the way of a CFP bid.

On the flip side, Purdue plays in a division that currently sits one spot behind Louisville’s ACC-Atlantic I the Sagarin Ratings. Not only would Purdue have to have a dream run and lose a maximum of 1 game in the regular season (something they haven’t even come close to since 1979), but they would also have to take down the champion of the second-best division in all of college football. That seems…unlikely.

Based on these facts alone, Louisville’s ceiling is higher than Purdue’s. Conference affiliation can only get you so far, especially if you do little to contribute to the reputation of that conference. One also cannot claim that their conference is better but easier at the same time. None of that makes sense.

Facilities

This is an extremely subjective thing to argue, but it is a point I have seen many fans from Purdue and Louisville clamoring about, so it needs to be addressed.

Purdue just spent close to $65 million building a brand-new football facility. This new facility consists of 3 floors, 112,000 sq/ft, meeting rooms, coaches’ offices, weight rooms, training rooms, lounge areas, and luxury locker rooms. It’s a beautiful, state-of-the-art facility that the Boilermakers will be able to enjoy for many years to come.

But if it sounds familiar, that’s because UofL already had a similar facility. Louisville also just spent $63 million renovating and expanding both the facility and the stadium. While Purdue fans are righteously excited about the new facility, new speaker systems, lights being added to the stadium (seriously), and are kicking around the idea of finishing their South End Zone, UofL is already many steps ahead.

I’ve also seen Purdue fans talk about all of their “Big Ten Money,” and how that should help them secure any coach they want. While UofL’s bank account is undoubtedly a little hamstrung at this time, with all the buyouts and court costs they’ve endured, that doesn’t mean the piggy bank won’t be full again very soon. In fact, according to USA Today, UofL currently has the 22nd largest athletic budget of any athletic department in the country with a budget of nearly $125,445,303. This dwarfs Purdue’s 46th ranked budget of $84,841,133. And that’s not even including the TV revenue the ACC Network is about to bring UofL.

Things may be tight for UofL currently, but I don’t see very many bidding wars that Tyra can’t handle.

I have a lot of respect for the program that Purdue has and that Brohm is rapidly improving, but when I compare the two programs I must give UofL a slight edge. As 93.9 The Ville’s Mark Ennis put so eloquently, “Purdue is in the middle class of college football, and Louisville is in the upper-middle class.” By no means would Brohm leaving West Lafayette for Louisville be considered an enormous move, but it would be a move up, nonetheless.

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