BREAKING: THE #FREEBIGZ BILLBOARD IS UP

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming on this fine Wednesday afternoon to let you know the #FreeBigZ billboard is officially up.

Kentucky fans grew tired of waiting for the NCAA to clear Zvonimir Ivisic and decided to take matters into their own hands. That resulted in a full-scale billboard outside of the NCAA Eligibility Center in Indianapolis, located at the intersection of Alonzo Watford Senior Drive and West 16th Street. They wanted employees to see it walking in and out of the office every day.

The campaign started back on the morning of Friday, January 5, $3,600 needed to cover expenses related to the rental and material costs. A few short hours later, Big Blue Nation raised over $4,000 across 230-plus donations — excess funds going to charity. All in the name of Big Z.

12 short days later, the billboard is officially up. And it’s beautiful.

A couple weeks ago, we launched a campaign to hang a billboard outside of the NCAA Eligibility Center so that their employees could see it every day on the way to work.

Kentucky fans raised the money in less that 4 hours. BBN is like that!

Today, the billboard is up!! #FreeBigZ pic.twitter.com/Y1Uz6CeIBE

— Buddy 🏀😼 (@BigBlueBud) January 17, 2024

John Calipari voiced his frustration on Ivisic’s fight with the NCAA on Monday. Previously confirming the hold-up is over a few-hundred-dollar stipend, the Kentucky head coach stressed “it’s not fair” the 7-2 freshman hasn’t received a final answer regarding his eligibility while other international players with similar cases are playing — especially in the NIL era.

“Well, I grabbed him today and I told him, ‘Look man, I feel so bad.’ I said to him, ‘I’m not worried about my team, this is you as a person that you’re having to go through this.’ I don’t know what he’ll add to our team,” Calipari said. “He’s pretty good, but we’ve got good players. It’s not fair to him. It took a long time to get him admitted — again, a 3.2 (GPA) student, smart kid, all the good stuff. And then it’s taking the NCAA even more time to look at the facts. There are European kids playing all around the country, but they’re playing and he’s not?”

If Ivisic doesn’t hear from the NCAA sooner rather than later, Calipari says it may be time for the school to get rowdy about the entire ordeal.

“Hopefully we hear something,” he said. “I just know that around the country, people are being very aggressive when it comes to different stuff with the NCAA. My hope is if this thing lingers too much longer, we become aggressive too.”

Does a billboard count as aggressive?

#FreeBigZ