Rivalries
The Louisville Cardinals rivalry with the Kentucky Wildcats is widely considered one of the most intense college rivalries in the United States. It is also one of the few rivalries to be equally intense in basketball and football, and practically every other sport as well. The men's basketball game is called the Battle for the Bluegrass; the football game is officially called the Governor's Cup.
In the early years after the rivalry resumed whoever would win the football game would go on to lose the basketball game. In 2003 Louisville broke that tradition by winning both the football and basketball game. Since then, Kentucky has completed the double twice, in the 2009-2010 and the 2010-2011 seasons.
Unlike many in-state rivalries that have been played continuously for many decades, these two schools went through a long period from the 1930s to the 1980s of rarely facing each other. They did play frequently from the 1900s to 1920's. Since the renewal of the men's basketball rivalry in 1983–84 UK leads the modern rivalry 18-11 and 27-14 overall. Since the two teams resumed playing football in 1994, U of L leads 11-8 but UK leads overall 14-11.
Louisville's other rivals include the University of Cincinnati, West Virginia University, Marquette University, and the University of Memphis.
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