The SEC doesn't want Kentucky fans to enjoy The Grove at Ole Miss

The Southeastern Conference announced more kickoff times for Kentucky’s upcoming 2024 football schedule earlier today. In the release, we learned the precise start times of three more UK games, in addition to the three we already knew in Weeks 1-3. Additionally, the SEC assigned the six remaining games to specific windows, four of which are “flex” games (mid-afternoon or evening) while the other two are confirmed night games but without a time or network.

Here, see for yourself:

Opponent	Time (EST)	Network	Date
Southern Miss	7:45 PM	SEC Network	Aug. 31
South Carolina	3:30 PM	ABC	Sept. 7
Georgia	7:30 PM	ABC	Sept. 14
Ohio	12:45 PM	SEC Network	Sept. 21
At Ole Miss	Noon	ABC or ESPN	Sept. 28
Vanderbilt	Flex		Oct. 12
At Florida	Flex		Oct. 19
Auburn	Night		Oct. 26
At Tennessee	Night		Nov. 2
Murray State	1:30 PM	ESPN+/SECN+	Nov. 16
At Texas	Flex		Nov. 23
Louisville	Flex		Nov. 30

Highlights include a game under the lights when Auburn comes to town or the extra 45 minutes to tailgate for Ohio, the closest thing to a home noon game at 12:45 p.m. on September 21. That extra 45 will go a long way in the parking lots.

What won’t go a long way, though, is time spent in the Grove at Ole Miss because the SEC showed once again that it doesn’t want you to have too much fun, Big Blue Nation. For whatever reason, the SEC doesn’t trust Kentucky fans in the Grove for longer than breakfast, so the Cats were assigned yet another 11:00 a.m. (CT) start time in Vaught–Hemingway Stadium, limiting the pregame festivities to a couple of hours in one of the best places in the South for pregame festivities.

BBN also got hosed two years ago when Kentucky broke a 12-year Grove drought with its first trip to Oxford since 2010. The Rebels played three games in Lexington in the 12 years between return trips to Mississippi, so anticipation and excitement were high for UK’s first tailgating at Ole Miss in more than a decade.

However, like the game in 2010 and the one coming up in 2024, the 2022 trip was assigned the 11 a.m. local time slot. UK fans waited over a decade to travel to Ole Miss again, only to get another 11 o’clock kick. Before that? One o’clock in 2005. For the average tailgater, that’s roughly 10 hours of allotted Grove time in 20 years of SEC football. You’ve been robbed, BBN.

And to rub it in, the SEC made Kentucky travel to Starkville every other year for the last three decades. The schedule-makers are cruel.

Other 2024 Kentucky football schedule comments and concerns

— From a football standpoint, catching Ole Miss earlier in the day is better than giving the home crowd all day to wake up. (Lane Kiffin, too.) Also, most players prefer early away starts so they don’t have to sit around a hotel room all day waiting for the game.

— Remember, Kentucky needs payback on Ole Miss for how the 2022 game ended when Dane Key’s potential game-winning touchdown catch was called back for a penalty. It’s a revenge game for the Cats.

— Ole Miss aside, Kentucky fans will have time to enjoy their first trip to Austin. The Texas game is confirmed for mid-afternoon or later as one of the four “flex” games. Home games against Louisville and Vanderbilt also dodged noon starts, as did the trip to Florida. We’ll learn those game times later, but they won’t be noon.

— Neyland at night will make that Tennessee game even more difficult. The atmosphere there two years ago was one of the best road atmospheres Kentucky has ever faced, and the Vols will have the opportunity to create that energy again by drawing another night game against the Wildcats in 2024.