Kentucky Sports Radio
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
(Oh Matt Walsh…)
We’ve discussed it briefly on the site this week, but one of the big pieces of news that came from the SEC meetings this week in Florida was the pairing of Kentucky and Florida as “permanent rivals” in the men’s basketball scheduling. With the addition of Missouri and Texas A&M to the SEC, changes had to be made to accommodate a growing SEC field. It appears that a format idea has been reached. Each team in the SEC will play 18 games. Two of those 18 games will always come in the form of a home-and-home series with the designated “permanent rival.” Four sets of home and away games of the 18 will be against rotating teams. The final 8 games will be played just once each season (either home or away) against the remaining opponents. Essentially each team will play their permanent rival 6 times every 3 seasons. They will play every other league opponent 4 times every 3 seasons.
The Florida/Kentucky pairing is not necessarily surprising, seeing as both schools have been the only SEC representatives to win a national championship in the last decade. Since Billy Donovan’s arrival, Florida has been perhaps the most consistent force in the SEC next to Kentucky, even surpassing the Wildcats for a spell. Matching the two best SEC teams year in and year out (who also happen to be a big draw for a nationally televised game) as permanent rivals only makes sense, but it does come at a bit of a cost.
Kentucky will not be playing Tennessee in Rupp every season. Kentucky will also not be playing Vanderbilt in Rupp every season. Kentucky will not be playing Missouri in Rupp every season. To me, those are the 3 biggest drawbacks of the new scheduling decisions. Vanderbilt and Tennessee obviously had to be paired as permanent rivals. As big as the Kentucky/Tennessee rivalry has been at times in the past, the two schools (Vandy at Tennessee) reside in the same state. Perhaps even bigger than the loss of having those 3 games in Rupp every season is the other side of the equation. And not just for those 3 schools, but for every SEC school other than Florida. Let me explain…
The Kentucky game is the marquee SEC home game for every single SEC school. When Kentucky comes to town, the opposing team’s rarely have trouble filling their arenas. Even if the school doesn’t normally pack the house for a home game, they do for the Kentucky game. Part of that is due to the excitement and draw of a big name opponent coming in– bringing the opposing fans out in masses to root for the upset or watch the star players. The other part of that is due to the incredible will to travel by Kentucky fans. If you won’t fill your own arena, we will. For the old “SEC East” teams who used to host Kentucky once a season in their home arenas, the scheduling is a huge blow.
Personally, I enjoyed the Tennessee and Vanderbilt games in Rupp every year. I also enjoyed knowing that those will be two of the toughest road environments that Kentucky would have to play in year in and year out. Losing out on one of those 2 experiences each season is a slight downfall to the new set up.
With all of that said, again, I like the pairing with Florida. The only other options would have likely been Tennessee, Vanderbilt or Missouri. Any objections to the Florida pairing, or arguments in favor of a different permanent rival?
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June 2nd, 2012 at 11:41 am
I agree, with this format, it should be Florida.
June 2nd, 2012 at 11:41 am
Having been to the UK-UT games in Thompson-Boling at least a dozen times in the past 20 years, I will certainly miss that annual opportunity for a great road trip. However, Florida has definitely been more competitive than any of the other Eastern Division schools in the past decade. While a loss against one of these former division foes would lack regular season payback, there is always the SEC tourney.
June 2nd, 2012 at 11:47 am
Matt Walsh is still gay
June 2nd, 2012 at 11:54 am
I agree with the format. And Vandy shouldn’t even be in the SEC. ‘Gonna miss that reg’lar Vols game though.
To me, not IU, not UL, but *UT* is the biggest and most enjoyable rivalry. ‘Could care less about IU and UL.
But always did love that UT rivalry. And I still really miss Bruce Pearl.
June 2nd, 2012 at 11:55 am
Anyone have a full list of the “rivalries”? UK/UF…Vandy/UT…who else?
June 2nd, 2012 at 12:05 pm
this would seem to be big news if one is a season ticket holder. potential for no IU, UNC, UofL, BE-SEC bame, and now, UT and/or VU home game next season. that’s a bit of a drop-off even with baylor.
June 2nd, 2012 at 12:08 pm
UK/UF is the right decision for a lot of reasons. That said, was there discussion of re-evaluating permanent rivals every 5-7 years? I am sure the SEC will add 2 more teams during that time span, but was just curious.
June 2nd, 2012 at 12:11 pm
@5… Auburn/Bama, Miss St/Ole Miss, LSU/Tx A&M, Missouri/Arkansas, UGA/So Carolina.
June 2nd, 2012 at 12:12 pm
Could we schedule TN as a non-conference game at Rupp in December? It would be a way of keeping the home and home with them! Just a thought!
June 2nd, 2012 at 12:25 pm
That is the worst explanation ever.
June 2nd, 2012 at 12:31 pm
I’m glad they didn’t make A&Mand Mizzou rivals. Probably good for them to be assimilated with Ark and LSU – close geographically. Had to be UK /UF…I went to UK from 04-08 and UF pretty much owned us the entire time. I will never forget those character building years. Thank you Coach Cal for making those the past!
June 2nd, 2012 at 12:31 pm
Sounds good to me, looking forward to the battles between these two teams. Donovan and Calipari could become a great rivalry but we need to put a few wins together against the cats for us to make it more respectable. Hopefully that starts with this season coming up, Gators return three starters and have already got Kasey Hill lined up for the ’13 class. Go Gators!
June 2nd, 2012 at 12:33 pm
I don’t like this at all. I like playing UT and Vandy twice. I hate all this realignment crap. I’d rather play UT than texas A&M.
June 2nd, 2012 at 12:37 pm
I hope that they allow for the permanent rival to changed (making it less than permanent, i guess). That way if Florida is terrible in 4 years, but Mizzou is a regular in the top-25, we could take them as a rival…
June 2nd, 2012 at 12:45 pm
Football only matters. They pay everybody an equal $ dollars as hush money. They save Bama-Tennesee and Auburn-Georgia for “the good of the entire league.” That is the extent of it. They matched up UK and Florida as permanent in basketball because ESPN and CBS told them to. With all due respect Florida and their recent accomplishments, they are the latest flavor of the month, one of many since 1933 that are up there with UK…but the oldest basketball rivalry in the SEC and one of the oldest in the country is UK-Tenn, but they don’t care…it is no less important that the two football rivalries they had to save. It is additionally sad that we won’t play our second oldest and respected rival, Vanderbilt. Take the $20 million and do what we tell ya.
June 2nd, 2012 at 1:34 pm
This is random and not a criticism, but could you (ally) please stop double spacing in your posts? It throws me off and changes the whole blog layout. Thank You.
June 2nd, 2012 at 1:45 pm
Haha I got you 16.
June 2nd, 2012 at 2:25 pm
This is a stupid format. Just keep the divisions for the REGULAR SEASON, put Mizzou in the East and A&M in the West. You play the 6 teams in your division twice (12 games), and the 7 teams in the other division once (7 games) for 19 total conference games. Then, in the tournament, ignore divisions when seeding.
That way, we get to play UT, UF, Vandy, and Mizzou at home every year.
June 2nd, 2012 at 2:28 pm
UT is our biggest rival in basketball period. We’ve played no one more and not one team in college basketball has enjoyed more SEC success or beaten us more often than our southern “friends” in TN. I have a disdain for Florida, but truly outside of the last decade and a half, they’ve been god awful. While Florida might have a better record of late, that doesn’t make them our natural rival….
June 2nd, 2012 at 3:15 pm
19. Yes, historically Tenn has been UK’s biggest rival but that was long, long, ago. In the past ten years or so Florida has been the more consistent rival to even be competitive with Kentucky and have a chance at winning once in a while. Since 2000, Florida has been to the Final Four 3 times, winning the championship twice. Tennessee hasn’t had anywhere near that success or come anywhere near to winning 7 consecutive games against UK as Florida did. Maybe Florida will go back to being a doormat to Kentucky after Donovan leaves but I’m pretty sure we will be a tough game for UK as long as he is there. I love that they have placed these two teams against each other, it will only make Florida’s basketball program stronger because of the competition.
June 2nd, 2012 at 3:21 pm
#3 – The reason – Does that still have the same effect?
June 2nd, 2012 at 3:54 pm
It should be UT no doubt about it.
June 2nd, 2012 at 5:03 pm
UK’s non-conference SOS is always good. Having 2 promised games against Florida every season will help keep the conference SOS as high as possible. Playing Ole Miss twice would be two guaranteed wins, but it kills our conference SOS.
June 2nd, 2012 at 9:07 pm
I agree with those above. UT would have been my choice as permanent rival. That said I understand that UT vs Vandy is the Tenn equivalent of UK vs UL….you can’t break that up. I’ll take Florida. We can break Billy D’s heart twice a year…that will be fun.