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Column: Nobody is to blame

  • http://indiana.247sports.com/Article/Indiana-and-Kentucky-simply-doing-whats-best-for-themselves--72597

    You can search all you want for a single person to blame for the indefinite suspension of the Indiana-Kentucky series, but it's not nearly that simple.

    Zach Osterman // IU Athletics beat reporter // Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ZachOsterman

    Zach Osterman ●


  • apparently Glass feels differently about b-ball away and neutral sites than he does football??

    Jim K

  • Zach, some questions, why don't the parties find middle ground and play 2 home and home and 2 neutral over the next 4 years?

    And on the Yum Center, I may be wrong, but that is owned and operated by the state not University of Louisville. My guess is UL gets first dibs on dates as the primary tenant, but UK should be able to schedule 1 game a year there (just as they did for many years at the Freedom Hall, which you aptly described as a dump ... ha ha).

    Complex issue, indeed. And too bad for bkb fans. No Kentucky-UNC or Kentucky-IU this year. That sucks.

    Follow me on Twitter @SteveHelwagen

    SteveHelwagen

  • I like how in the ESPN alert they made it sound like Indiana is the one who wanted it cancelled.

    OldOaken247 on twitter..... I say a lot of stuff you wont care about.

    Oaken ●

  • SteveHelwagen said...

    Zach, some questions, why don't the parties find middle ground and play 2 home and home and 2 neutral over the next 4 years?

    And on the Yum Center, I may be wrong, but that is owned and operated by the state not University of Louisville. My guess is UL gets first dibs on dates as the primary tenant, but UK should be able to schedule 1 game a year there (just as they did for many years at the Freedom Hall, which you aptly described as a dump ... ha ha).

    Complex issue, indeed. And too bad for bkb fans. No Kentucky-UNC or Kentucky-IU this year. That sucks.

    I'm with you, Steve. Ultimately, its the fans who lose.

    Even if they played the game at the Bloomington and Lexington YMCAs, 20,000 fans would have shown up and the atmosphere still would have been terrific.

    Ed Magoni // Publisher of Inside Indiana Magazine // Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/EMagoni

    Ed Magoni

  • Jim K said...

    apparently Glass feels differently about b-ball away and neutral sites than he does football??

    I think the difference is that his football program is one that requires outside-the-box thinking, both for exposure and for financial success. If memory serves, when Indiana was approached about the D.C. game, Glass essentially threw out a figure ($3 million) that he believed was rather exorbitant. The Redskins paid it anyway. It was, to risk a cinematic cliche, an offer Glass couldn't refuse.

    His basketball program need not be bought and sold like that, obviously, and I think there is also something to the idea that quite frankly, Indiana wasn't going to be bullied on this one. The program isn't just successful again, it was inarguably one of the top 10-15 teams in America last season. It doesn't need to cater to anyone, least of all the program that stands as one of the most successful in the country and its most hated rival. Indiana wanted it on the campuses. Why abdicate right now?

    Zach Osterman // IU Athletics beat reporter // Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ZachOsterman

    Zach Osterman ●

  • SteveHelwagen said...

    Zach, some questions, why don't the parties find middle ground and play 2 home and home and 2 neutral over the next 4 years?

    And on the Yum Center, I may be wrong, but that is owned and operated by the state not University of Louisville. My guess is UL gets first dibs on dates as the primary tenant, but UK should be able to schedule 1 game a year there (just as they did for many years at the Freedom Hall, which you aptly described as a dump ... ha ha).

    Complex issue, indeed. And too bad for bkb fans. No Kentucky-UNC or Kentucky-IU this year. That sucks.

    Steve,

    First of all, you may be right about the Yum. Forgive me if I misunderstood the ownership situation there. I still think politically, folks in Louisville would make it tough for Indiana and Kentucky to play there with any regularity, unless Indiana also agreed to a series with Louisville (which I think Rick Pitino very much wants).

    As for the middle ground question: There is a very long, involved answer to that, and the column probably only addresses some of it. Quite frankly, some weeks ago, I was chatting with someone relatively in the know with the basketball program, and I made an off-hand comment about the Kentucky game not happening next year, and I was essentially told I was talking to the wrong school.

    I think that this started at Kentucky's end, perhaps as far back as the poll that was posted to John Calipari's website asking which traditional rivalry (IU, UNC, Louisville) fans would least miss if it were taken off the schedule — Indiana won that vote by a heavy margin.

    This is also probably at least to some extent about politics, and about Indiana not wanting to be pushed into a series format it doesn't like. In the future, I could see something similar to what you're proposing, maybe a Bloomington-Louisville-Indianapolis-Lexington sequence. That makes sense long-term. But I think there were a lot of immediate factors that led the two programs to feel like there just wasn't a middle ground that satisfied both sides enough to make the deal worth it.

    Zach Osterman // IU Athletics beat reporter // Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ZachOsterman

    Zach Osterman ●

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