Your University of Kentucky Wildcats won 14 of the last 16 basketball games against the rival Louisville Cardinals, plus a game thrown out from the record books for Louisville’s nefarious dorm room behavior in the 2012-13 season, college basketball’s year without a champion. One of the sport’s best rivalries has lost some of its juice due to the ineptness on Louisville’s side lately. Now, the Cards are going to extreme lengths to hide their annual loss to the Cats by moving the game into early November, tucked away on a Tuesday night in the middle of the college football season.
The significant change to the basketball schedule received instant criticism from both fan bases because it is, objectively, a stupid move to play the game on a weeknight before the football version of the Battle of the Bluegrass. The November 11, 2025, meeting will be the earliest the game has ever been played on the calendar, and only the third time in history that the Cats and Cards will meet in the month of November. (Kentucky won the other two instances in 1983 and 1993.)
Clearly, Louisville grew tired of Kentucky ruining its Christmas every year, so the game was taken out of its traditional December slot for a night so early in the season that Louisville hopes its outcome will quickly be forgotten. A cowardly move, it was a desperate measure after losing the biggest game on the schedule for so many years. Maybe the 2023 game in Louisville was the tipping point, when Big Blue Nation took over Louisville’s downtown arena for Kentucky’s 19-point win in the KFC Yum! Center. The rivalry blowout was the last time Louisville hosted, and one of the lowest moments in the series for a program that once had dignity, and could occasionally win something.
Afraid of Jayden Quaintance
Moving the game to the beginning of the season also increases Louisville’s chances of finally winning one because Kentucky likely won’t have its full roster. Louisville probably saw the timeline for Jayden Quaintance‘s return from an ACL injury and wanted to be sure that Kentucky would still be without its projected lottery pick in the frontcourt. Quaintance is eyeing a mid-December return to basketball. Would it surprise you if Louisville wanted to get the game out of the way before Quaintance is available?
The lengths those dirty birds will go to duck the Cats.
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