John Calipari on Kentucky's schedule and opponents

On Wednesday, John Calipari confirmed the rumor that in a couple of years, Kentucky and Indiana will renew their rivalry’s annual head-to-head series.

“We’ve agreed in principle that we’ll be playing them,” Calipari said at SEC Basketball Media Day. “It’ll start in 2025-26. But it’s at the administrative level now, so all of the details will be worked out.”

The renewal of the longtime border rivalry is one of two new home-and-home series Calipari and Kentucky Basketball announced in the last couple of months. Back in August, Calipari and Mark Few agreed upon a Kentucky-Gonzaga series that begins next month. The fourth-ranked Wildcats travel to Spokane to play the second-ranked Bulldogs on November 20 and the series will last for six consecutive seasons between Spokane, Lexington, and neutral sites.

Kentucky and Michigan also begin a new regular-season series this year, beginning in London before coming back stateside to Lexington and Ann Arbor.

Regarding Kentucky’s new schedule additions and announcing them early, Calipari said at SEC Basketball Media Day, “It’s good for our season ticket holders to know like next year is Gonzaga and Michigan; the following year you’ve got Louisville and the (SEC/Big 12 Challenge); then you’ve got the next year the (Indiana) game. So I kind of like that we’re going out so they’ll all know, here are the games we’re playing.

“Now the issue with it is, scheduling is fun and easy,” he continued. “Then you’ve got to play the games.”

He listed the difficult road ahead this upcoming season alone in Gonzaga, the CBS Sports Classic versus UCLA, the Champions Classic versus Michigan State, the SEC/Big 12 Challenge versus Kansas (“I’m kind of surprised that we’re playing Kansas again”), and then Louisville (“Kenny is going to do a great job”).

After then conference play begins.

“The crazy thing is our league has gotten so much better,” Calipari said. “I mean, Tennessee, this will be one of Rick’s—in my opinion, and I haven’t seen them play, but I know him and I know the personnel— one of his better teams. You know what’s happening at Arkansas, the job they’re doing. The job at Auburn, Alabama, playing the way they play, which is a little different.

“We’ve got a bunch of teams. We’ve got new guys that have good teams that are coming in. Did I miss somebody? Who? Is there another team I missed?

“But you’ve got top-15 teams in this league now. So where you get in your league, you’re going to play seven, six ranked teams. Now you go add three or four more and all of a sudden, you’d better stay away from injury.”