Louisville stuns No. 16 SMU with late-game heroics, 41-31

On a Saturday night in Dallas, two ranked programs met with postseason implications hanging in the balance, and Louisville answered the oldest question in sport — not whether a team is talented, but whether it can execute when the moment demands it most. The Cardinals, trailing for much of the contest, found something in the fourth quarter that SMU could not match: composure under pressure. A 41-31 road victory over a higher-ranked opponent is the kind of result that quietly reshapes a season's meaning.