We also know that the drama that is the Indiana-Kentucky
series continues.
Here’s our unasked-for helpful suggestion:
Play the bleeping game!
Play it at Lucas Oil Stadium, on an aircraft carrier, at
Rupp Arena or Assembly Hall, or at George Clooney’s villa on Lake Como in Italy.
Who gives a hoot at this point.
Play the bleeping game!
IU and Kentucky might very well be No. 1 and No. 2 in the
country by December. This could be the most watched sporting event of the
month, maybe of the season. It would be great for recruiting, marketing,
promotion and more.
What you don’t want is the Hoosiers end up replacing
Kentucky with, say, Kentucky State. People want to see Pacquiao vs. Mayweather,
or Ali vs. Frazier in their prime. They want to see IU vs. Kentucky. They don’t
want the basketball equivalent of Ali vs. Mr. Potato Head.
Play the bleeping game!
As for all that anguish over how playing at Indianapolis’
Lucas Oil Stadium will screw over IU students unable to attend a game there,
that’s hogwash. Students are resourceful. They will find a way, either on their
own or via university-planned transport.
Play the bleeping game!
Things went public after the Bloomington Herald-Times’
Dustin Dopirak forced the Hoosiers hand by using the Freedom of Information act
to get a copy of that letter, which was last Friday.
In it Glass showed the incredibly reasonable and generous compromise
he offered Barnhart to continue a series that has become, for the most part,
one of the most compelling national basketball rivalries in the nation for the
last 43 years.
And that Barnhart said no.
By now you know the basics, that UK coach John Calipari
wanted to play major non-conference games at large neutral site facilities
because of the “non-traditional” nature of his program and to help prepare his
teams for the NCAA tourney.
In other words, because he consistently signed
one-and-done guys, because there was such a high turnover in his program,
Kentucky had to schedule differently.
You can believe that. Or, you can believe, that after
losing at Assembly Hall last December, he wanted no part of that experience
ever again. As Hoosier Deep Throat would say, the sucker was scared.
Calipari, of course, says fear isn’t in his nature. He’s
just looking out for what was best for his program.
Whatever the reason, he convinced Barnhart to go along
with it.
Indiana officials, understandably, wanted to continue
playing at Assembly Hall and Rupp Arena. The Assembly Hall atmosphere last
December was as electric and thrilling (see above photo) as you could have in a universe that
spawned Terrell Owens. They didn’t want a neutral site and they didn’t want
Calipari getting a venue in Indianapolis, which has become a recruiting hotbed.
So IU announced that the series was over and the Wildcats
were the villains.
Given that it takes two parties to have a dispute, given
how big this game would be no matter where it was played, villainy was shared.
So after a week of getting slammed, Glass resumed
negotiations and compromised that the games could be played at Indianapolis’
Lucas Oil Stadium in 2012 and 2013, then at Rupp Arena in 2014 and Assembly
Hall in 2015. He even offered to pay half of a $100,000 buyout with Portland,
or help work something out with Samford, to ensure Kentucky would have the
early December dates open to accommodate a game with Indiana.
Barnhart said no.
Now, it gets a little tricky, with both sides accusing
the other of being rude and not getting back to them and leaving them in limbo.
Nobody wants to be in limbo.
So Glass sent his letter. In it he said, “We were back to
Kentucky’s take-it-or-leave-it demand that we play only on a neutral court with
no opportunities to play on our campuses in front of our students and other
season ticket holders.”
He ended by saying, “Unfortunately, Kentucky’s refusal to
consider anything other than a two year neutral-site contract only based on
your new “non-traditional” scheduling philosophy has doomed a series that
should be bigger than that.”
Barnhart, as you can imagine, had a different view.
Basically, he said that after IU ended things on May 3, Kentucky reached a
two-year deal with Baylor –- one year at Rupp Arena, one year at Dallas. It
restarted a home-and-home series with North Carolina. It finalized dates with
Portland and Samford.
Barnhart said Kentucky didn’t want to back out on
Portland or Samford so late in the scheduling process. He also said the
Wildcats wanted to stick with just two-year contracts and that a four-year deal
with Indiana would jeopardize its home-and-home series with Louisville.
He ended his response by saying UK was still leaving Dec.
15 and Dec. 22 open to play, and that IU and Lucas Oil Stadium were available
on those dates to make it work. He said they should play the neutral site games
the next two years and keep talking about playing on campus for the years after
that.
In other words, the series wasn’t dead yet.
Of course, you’re dealing with bluster and egos and
wanting to avoid, at all cost, the impression of having caved. IU officials
firmly believe they have fully compromised and that Kentucky officials haven’t
met them in the middle, or even a quarter of the way.
In the meantime, there was been a public relations cost
to both schools in all of this, which was so unnecessary given that this will
be such a compelling game.
A cynic would say this was done to jack up a HUGE TV
contract, because all of this will make the game even bigger than it was
before. That all this drama is just a game, a conspiracy, a trick to make even
more money.
Whatever. It doesn’t matter.
Just play the bleeping game!
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