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Coach Cal says that Kentucky fans should look forward not just to games, but to “experiences.”
Cal said yesterday that was the main reason why UK has scheduled a doubleheader with Baylor involving both the men’s and women’s teams at Cowboys Stadium in Texas with Baylor. Tickets will be evenly distributed between the schools, with the hope that attendance at the giant NFL stadium will break an NCAA record.
Also in the works…a multi-year deal between UK and Duke that would see the two teams play at various major national venues, although apparently that one needs some more negotiation.
These kind of announcements go a long way toward defining what Calipari meant earlier this month when he said that Kentucky was a “non-traditional” program. These are made-for-TV spectacles, and provided that Kentucky’s level of play remains at the high level that it has since Calipari’s arrival, they should have boffo ratings…which translates into more exposure for top players (for all the schools involved) and more success down the road.
We also liked the announcement that the Kentucky-North Carolina series will return to the schedule in 2013-14, but that it will now be calibrated in such a way that Kentucky plays at North Carolina in years it hosts Louisville and vice-versa. That means fans at Rupp Arena are guaranteed that at least one of the rivals will appear on the home court every year.
Calipari drives a lot of people crazy, but innovators in every field do so. Maybe if more organizations were to be so open to changing with the times, they, too, would enjoy the same kind of success.
