Kentucky Could Follow the Tennessee Model to National Prominence?

Based on the title some of the BBN is saying we just crushed Louisville, asking why am I talking about Tennessee? Glad you asked. There are actually some fans out there who are saying even though it's fun, it becoming boring. Really!

I know it never became boring to the Tennessee fans beating the Kentucky team's head in. Kentucky played an integral part of building the Tennessee Volunteers to national prominence. There are U of L fans rooting for the reshaping the SEC with Texas and Oklahoma. In the event of a possible pod system in the scheduling, Louisville might escape. First the Dean of the power-five commissioners Greg Sankey said the earliest the reshaping can take place is 2024 - when EF Hutton speaks, you listen. Let me give you some history of UK versus Tennessee.

We will focus on years from 1975 to 2010 that will spell out what scheduling did for Tennessee.
Every one of those years UK and Vandy were scheduled in the month of November. Those of you that follow recruiting know that momentum going into the 2nd Wednesday in February (national date) is vital and that's a huge part of the momentum.

From 1975 to 1991 Ole Miss was a November patsy. Sprinkled in the time-frame from 1975 to 2010 was Memphis and or Memphis State. Tennessee went 9-1. During that time frame beatable teams like Wichita, Akron, Boston College, Louisville, and Lousiana-Lafayette were stategically added to the November schedule. Arkansas and South Carolina respectively two years apiece via the SEC scheduling placed November and were defeated both years.

Phil Fulmer was hired in 1992 for a ten year stretch. And the beat goes on. Let me digress and say UK won in 1976, 1977, and 1984.

South Carolina came into the SEC in 1991 but their SEC schedule didn't start until 1992 and except for three dates in November when they went 1-2 against Tennessee, the SEC scheduling kept the out of November.

Overall, during the aforementioned time-frame this article is focusing on, Tennessee went 148 wins and 130 losses and Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and Memphis provided a large percent of those November wins. Call it smart scheduling, but it is what it is!

The thrust of what I am saying is, why would anybody want to take U of L off the schedule. It's fun beating your rival and especially in Cardinal Stadium. Saturday night was the largest contingent of UK fans in said stadium this writer has ever witnessed. Other than the excitement of this UK team, perhaps, U of L has bills to pay and can't rely on the the U of L faithful to buy the tickets.

Lastly, why would any UK die-hard football fan ever complain about playing cup-cake games?