At Louisville, Athletic Boom Is Rooted in ESPN Partnership
"Over the past dozen years, to feed its unending appetite for live football, ESPN has made Louisville Cardinals midweek games a mainstay in prime time. In turn, Louisville has made exposure on ESPN the centerpiece of a campaign to rise above its commuter-school roots and become a powerhouse in college sports."
" Tom Jurich, Louisville’s longtime athletic director, gave ESPN much of the credit for the university's turnaround. “If it wasn’t for ESPN, we would be a fraction of what we are today,†he said"
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/sport ... orts&_r=2&