No doubt anymore about the immediate future of the Louisville-Kentucky football series, with the schools having signed a contract for three more games from 2017 to the 2019 season.
What Tom Jurich wants, Tom Jurich gets. Jurich has never waivered on wanting the University of Kentucky to be an annual opponent, even with his school’s entrance into the Atlantic Coast Conference. UK Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart, on the other hand, has waffled publicly, allowing speculation to grow that his school wanted out of the series.
Barnhart’s position, or lack thereof, may explain why no public announcement was made in July when the schools signed the new contract. The agreement only became public after fbschedules.com filed an open records request and obtained a copy of the contract extension from both schools. Barnhart obviously wanted to keep the extension quiet for as long as possible, and Jurich respected his wishes.
Many UK fans wanted out of the series. Understandably so after watching Louisville win seven out of the last 10 games. Now that UK is showing some signs of life, with some major advances in recruiting under Coach Mike Stoops, there’s a sense among the Big Blue faithful that Kentucky can reverse the trend. UK has actually won two SEC games, you know, and that’s enough for their fans to prematurely assert superiority.
A sizeable segment of UofL fans, including this observer, would have been okay with doing away with the game. While the annual game has been good for football in the state, it is not a friendly rivalry, creating unnecessary friction between UofL and UK fans who must live and work in close proximity.
In the early days of the series, the outcome of the game rarely made much of a dent in the national rankings, unless there was an upset quickly eliminating one of them from serious contention in the post-season. For the foreseeable future, however, they will be playing on the last week of the season. Everything could be on the line for either team.
Tom Jurich recognizes that having such a heated rivalry on the schedule can only be good in terms of fan loyalty. A strong dislike for anything UK is one thing that most UofL fans have in common, and every game against UK will be sold out and standing only, at least at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.
This is good for both schools and helps keep some of Kentucky’s football talent in state.