When these two take to the court every year, it's usually a sure sign college basketball season is here. However, when Indiana beat Kentucky last December in dramatic fashion on a trey at the buzzer, might it also be the end of a classic hoops rivalry? It sure looks that way.

Barring a last minute change of heart by the schools' respective athletic directors, it looks like Kentucky & Indiana will end a classic college basketball rivalry that dates all the way back to 1969. The sticking point appears to be where to play the annual game that usually attracts the attention of CBS Sports or ESPN to broadcast the game nationally.

While Indiana Athletic Director Fred Glass wants to maintain a home-and-home matchup with Kentucky, alternating the games between Bloomington's historic Assembly Hall on the IU campus and Lexington's historic Rupp Arena on the UK campus, Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart has a better idea. Barnhart would prefer the annual Kentucky/Indiana matchup be played on a neutral site at either Louisville's relatively new KFC Yum! Center or at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. So far, the Hoosiers have balked and as it stands now, a classic college hoops rivalry that's been played for 42 straight seasons is in danger of not being played at all.

For their parts, Indiana head coach Tom Crean & Kentucky head coach John Calipari want to continue the annual matchup, and Crean prefers continuing the series on the schools' respective campuses. Barnhart prefers the neutral site idea so that fans from both schools can participate in the annual matchup. By playing the games on campus, Barnhart complained that fans were getting shut out, considering the fact each school had only 100 tickets allotted to visiting fans at both on-campus arenas.

Since 2006, two years before Crean's arrival in Bloomington, the annual Kentucky/Indiana has taken place at the schools' respective campuses. From 1994 to 2005 however, Louisville's old Freedom Hall & Indianapolis' old Hoosier/RCA Dome had alternated as neutral sites for the annual game.

No one outside of Indiana and Kentucky give a shit.

Uh, no.

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Fire Phil Emery