Mark Pope's first idea to fix college basketball as Kentucky's head coach? "Let's get to 40 games."

It’s nothing new for the Kentucky head coach to share grandiose ideas to fix college basketball, using the platform to spread the message to the masses (and decision-makers) in hopes of improving the sport as we know it. We just wrapped up 15 years of it with John Calipari, who spent every summer crafting up something new in an effort to help players, coaches, programs and everything in between.

He was ahead of the curve when it came to paying players — remember when he compared the NCAA dragging its feet there to the Soviet Union in its last years?  “It was still powerful. It could still hurt you. But you could see it crumbling, and it was just a matter of time before it either changed or ceased to exist.” Then NIL came along.

Coach Cal also pushed for the end of super seniors, saying the game didn’t need 28-year-olds with “two kids, his wife, he’s on his second marriage but he’s playing.” Throw in his push for a summer league, coaches being allowed to help pay for NIL, mandatory NIL agent certification, smaller recruiting windows in the summer, more staff members allowed to go on the road and recruit — the list goes on and on and on.

Mark Pope took his first stab at a big-picture change since taking the Kentucky job in April — and it’s a pretty significant one. Sitting down with the media to preview the Wildcats’ upcoming rivalry matchup vs. Louisville, the first-year coach was asked about playing in multi-team events compared to holiday tournaments like the Maui Invitational and how he wanted to balance those opportunities in the future.

That led to a smaller scheduling rant specific to Kentucky that grew into a bigger one about college basketball as a whole.

“It’s really interesting, because there are so many dynamics that are changing right now that it’s almost hard to prognosticate that a little bit,” Pope said. “I love — you know, Maui is such an incredible event, for example. It’s such an incredible event. It’s great for our team, it’s great for our fans. It’s great. It also comes at a cost, right? It comes at a cost in a bunch of different ways, especially with the NIL factors and the revenue sharing factors. All of that stuff is going to come into play, the number of games in conference play is going to come into play. All of those things start to kind of walk into this space, so it just becomes a mixed bag.

“If it was a standalone, I would love to go to Maui every single year, because I just think it’s an unbelievable experience to go grow your team, right? I think it’s great for fans, but it’s not a standalone. It’s not a standalone prospect. There’s other things that are really important to the success of our program, success of our team, and so we’re just trying to figure all that out.”

Then came his fix, one that includes a change that would shift the standard 31-game schedule as we know it today to a 40-game schedule ahead of postseason play. He’s open to some of those contests being the high-profile exhibition matchups that have taken over college basketball the past couple of years, just as long as the sample size grows to 40 regulation contests.

“Rules change and guidelines change. I’m advocating — my solution is like, let’s get to 40 games. Let us get to 40 games, guys, let’s just get to 40 games,” Pope said. “And you know what? It’s fine if you want to make four or six of those preseason games, like, in the league, great. Make more exhibition games, I’m all in. I think, for me, as we inherit these teams that are newer, that are less familiar, that have less staying power, making the season longer is going to give us a better product. You kind of have to build a team in one season. It’s not just us, a lot of people are feeling that.”

Among the benefits? Added revenue, obviously — something the NCAA would certainly appreciate. It also gets players better prepared for the next level, an adjustment he had to make personally jumping to an 82-game schedule in the NBA following his playing days as a Wildcat. Oh, and the games would be a whole heck of a lot more fun.

“It makes a huge difference in another revenue stream. It gives you a huge opportunity to go play other teams,” Pope continued. “If we would finally pass this and change this legislation where we can play DI opponents without having some kind of makeshift (events) where we’re just allowed to play DI opponents in an exhibition game, I think that’s great for basketball. I think that’s gonna allow unbelievable home-and-home matchups.

“We have sports that are playing well over 40 games in college right now, so I know our guys can handle it academically and still be great students. I think it preps our guys better for moving on to the NBA. When I went to the league, by the time I got to the All-Star Break, I was like, ‘This is insanity!’ I mean, we played, 10 more games already before we got to the All-Star break than I had in my whole college career — and their games are longer. So bumping this number up, I think helps guys professionally and I think it fits in better with this NIL era. That gives you the chance to have the flexibility to maybe go jump into really special MTEs, too. That’s the solution I’m pushing for.”

Is anyone actually listening to his push for change? He has no idea — Coach Cal never thought anyone cared when he shared his two cents. If you’re going to have the platform, though, why not use it?

“I don’t know if a lot of people are listening yet, but I’d love it if we got there at some point,” he said.

Is a 40-game schedule against DI competition coming to college basketball? If Pope has it his way, yes.