Tuesday Cardinal Couple -- The American up and running

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- The American open for business.

Louisville's one year stay destination before heading to the ACC has their website up and running now. The American, American Athletic Conference, Louisville and the Nine Dwarfs...whatever you want to call it...has a website that, as of 11 p.m. Monday night, had five articles on it and the logos of the ten teams that will participate in it this season.

Yes, Louisville made the logo inclusion this time on the home page. It would seem rather silly not to put it on there...even if UofL's stay is brief. After all, the defending NCAA men's basketball team and only BCS Bowl game winner in the conference is Louisville. Originally, they had 12 logos there on the site and not Louisville's.

Those crazy Americans.

Link is:

http://theamerican.org

You can read about Memphis getting the men's basketball tournament in 2014, Uncasville, CT and the Mohegan Sun getting the women's basketball tournament and there is one of those flashy one minute or so montages with dynamic music playing in the background. Louisville's inclusion in the montage is minimal...a brief flash of Montrezl dunking and Peyton smiling. Don't blink, you'll miss it.

It's understandable. After all, we're leaving right after the christening party to go to better digs, more money and tougher competition.



They list 15 sports on the site, in alphabetical order, as being ones that will have American competition. They list track twice....indoor and outdoor.

I haven't taken the new site for a spin yet and checked out the bells and whistles. The dramatic music and seeing the Uconn women's basketball team twice in the first ten seconds of the montage was enough for now.

I'll have plenty of chances to go there beginning in August, I suppose. I may even sneak over and check out a fan site for the conference, too. It can be found at:

http://americanathleticconference.net/

They still have the 12 team logo on their site, with no Louisville or Rutgers but ECU and Navy. I saw an Andrea Adelson article posted there also...which means I may not get over there anytime soon.

These Americans can be confusing.

I also saw they had a social media link on the official site. I doubt they list CARDINAL COUPLE on it.

So, a brand new conference is born. Could be a fun year. We'll just see how these Americans do in keeping us informed for a year. The BIG EAST pretended that CARDINAL COUPLE didn't exist. Or the dog ate our e-mail address...something like that.

I'll never forget my hilarious encounter (at least now it is...) a couple of years ago with a BIG EAST official representative at an official BIG EAST event and being informed that my media access was (and I quote) "just barely" approved. I honestly think this individual was either trying to shame me or try and make me cry. I, of course, felt or did neither and countered in typical Groucho Marx fashion by mentioning that it was OK...I had "just barely" found the venue where the event was taking place because of its' diminutive size...and mentioned that Louisville had a much larger venue for events like this.  

Ah, well...water under the bridge for the most part.

I hope these Americans schedule indoor track in the winter and outdoor track in the spring or fall. I can't wait to go to Temple or Tulane.

Or...maybe I can. Chapel Hill or Cameron Indoor, anyone?



-Paulie