sportheory | sport + theory | college sports rankings

Former Virginia Tech signee Montrezl Harrell finally received his release from the Hokies on Thursday, meaning he's eligible to sign with a new school and begin his college career this fall.

According to Harrell's father, the four-star recruit is currently looking at five schools: Louisville, Kentucky, Florida, NC State and Alabama.

The first issue that needs to be addressed here is this: U of L could really use Harrell. He's a skilled power forward with a Big East-ready body who could be a reliable backup to Chane Behanan at the four. His addition would also allow Angel Nunez to shift over to the three, a spot which seems like his natural position.

But then there's the whole, "oh yeah, we don't have any available scholarships" deal.

Louisville is interested in Harrell, and if he decides that he wants to become a Cardinal, my understanding is that he won't be turned away. This leaves us with two possibilities as to how Harrell could end up donning the red and black on scholarship.

1) Terry Rozier fails to qualify. This is the cleanest route, but it also seems improbable given that the status of Rozier - who will be taking summer courses in an attempt to become eligible - likely won't be known until a few weeks before the start of the fall semester. Harrell's decision will almost surely come well before Rozier's status is known with any degree certainty.

2) A scholarship player gives up his free ride or chooses to transfer. The only player with whom there's been any speculation in this regard is Rakeem Buckles, who is sitting out next season to repair his torn ACL. Multiple people have pitched the idea of Buckles, a Miami native, following Richard Pitino to Florida International. As far as I know, this is a scenario without any actual substance.

Of course this is all meaningless if Harrell picks another school, but I do think it is intriguing that U of L is pursuing him given its scholarship situation. Certainly something worthy of keeping an eye on.

ESPN's Andrea Adelson has updated her Big East rankings for the first time since spring football wrapped, and she's still going with the Cards as the league favorites heading into the 2012 season.

1. Louisville: Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater looked better than ever this spring, giving me renewed confidence the Cardinals are going to be the preseason favorite in the league. The secondary should be exceptionally strong, and the offensive line should be better. Questions remain at running back and with depth in the front seven. But of all the teams in the league, I think the Cardinals have the most stability headed into the season. Plus, it hugely helps to have Charlie Strong entering Year 3.

Adelson did shake things up a touch, surprisingly putting South Florida at No. 2, followed by Rutgers and Cincinnati.

DePaul remained unranked.

Shablam:

Louisville commit Anton Gill is up to No. 32 in the latest Scout.com Top 100 for the class of 2013, which was released earlier today.

Gill is also just six spots below the cut-off between four-star and five-star players on the list.

Other players in the top 100 currently listing Louisville:

Jabari Parker (1)

BeeJay Anya (11)

Jermaine Lawrence (15)

Isaac Hamilton (18)

Sidnarius Thornwell (19)

Tyler Ennis (20)

Jerrell Martin (28)

Kennedy Meeks (34)

Dominic Woodson (36)

Solomon Poole (39)

Kuran Iverson (51)

Moses Kingley (52)

Kris Jenkins (60)

Devin Williams (76)

Malik-Price Martin (86)

Jarquez Smith (89)

It's been said plenty of times already, but this recruiting class is an enormous one for U of L.

This is probably worth keeping an eye on.

The University of Louisville equipment department will sell discounted football clothing and merchandise at its camp store on June 6-10 and June 13-17 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The staff will sell clothing from the 2011 football season in front of the Trager Center, while the football staff conducts their annual football camps.

T-shirts, hats, shorts, pull-overs and other football clothing will be on sale to the general public.

There is no amount of money I would not pay for this:

I'd have to start wearing "night shirts" again for the first time since I was five, but the best things in life demand sacrifice.

So the powers that be in Lexington attempted to die the water in their downtown fountains pink today in support of breast cancer awareness. Instead, the dye was somehow "messed up," and the water throughout the city's downtown area now appears a suspiciously familiar shade of red.

Second photo via Brett Dawson

I'm not saying God did this, but I'm also not saying God didn't do this.