I know this sounds like a broken record, but the Kentucky/Indiana series has crept back into the news today.
It looks like Indiana tried a last ditch effort to save the rivalry but Kentucky isn’t having any of it.
Indiana AD Fred Glass sent a letter to Mitch Barnhart and the Herald-Times attained the letter through a public records search.
[QUOTE][LEFT][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial]In the letter, Glass detailed all of the negotiations in the attempt to revive the series since it was publicly declared dead on May 3. Glass said that Indiana had indicated that it would be willing to play at Lucas Oil Stadium in December of 2012 and 2013, “consistent with Coach (John) Calipari’s previous offer to do so.” The series would then be moved to Rupp Arena for the 2014 game and Assembly Hall for the 2015 game. Glass said that was acceptable to Indiana because it would allow the freshman class that arrives next year to see at least one game on campus in their four-year careers.
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“We were trying to find something that worked well for everyone,” Glass said by phone. “That was a suggestion that a number of people had written in to me had made. That four-year plan struck me as a fairly good idea. We reached out in the spirit of compromise to save the series and to save the ability for our students to see at least one Indiana-Kentucky game on campus in their tenure.”
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Glass said both in the letter and by phone that Indiana tried to make several other concessions to Kentucky to ease some of their logistical concerns. Kentucky had scheduled a game with Portland on Dec. 8 — the second Saturday in December when the IU-Kentucky game is traditionally played. Breaking the contract with Portland required a $100,000 buyout, but Glass said in the letter and by phone that Indiana offered to pay half of that buyout to make it work. The letter also said that Indiana was willing to move this year’s game to Dec. 22 and move a conflicting game the Hoosiers had scheduled to make that possible.
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Glass said that he and Barnhart had several phone conversations and that they were involved in a conference call that also included several other administrators in both athletic departments. However, on May 23, Kentucky coach John Calipari made a scheduling related post on his blog that discussed the revival of the Wildcats’ series with North Carolina and his attempts to begin a series at neutral sites with Duke. Glass said he called Barnhart to find out if that meant that negotiations were off. According to the letter, IU assistant athletic director Jayd Grossman received a call from Kentucky executive associate athletics director DeWayne Peevy saying that Kentucky would refuse a contract lasting more than two years.[/FONT][/COLOR][/LEFT]
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[URL=”http://blogs.heraldtimesonline.com/iusp/?p=19276&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter”]Read Entire Article[/URL]
I am to the point where I really don’t care about the series, but I would have to agree that if Indiana wanted to play the first 2 games on a neutral floor and they were going to pay half the buyout for the Portland game, they made a true effort to concede to Kentucky’s demands.
Sounds like Kentucky just doesn’t want to play Indiana.
