First meeting on the hardwood in 1924, the Kentucky-Indiana basketball rivalry has been one of the most historic out-of-conference rivalries in college sports. Unfortunately, it's been some time since we've seen it.
Thankfully, that's now about to change.
On Wednesday, the two programs announced that they had agreed to renew the rivalry matchup with a four-game series that will begin with the first meeting in the 2025-26 college basketball season. Per UK Athletics, each team will host two home games in the series, with one of Indiana's home games being played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
This will mark almost a decade since the two rivals have played as their last meeting came in the Second Round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament. Indiana won that game, 73-67. This will be the first time the two programs have met in the regular season since 2011.
Kentucky basketball fans celebrate return of Indiana rivalry matchup
Naturally, especially with the recent return to prominence for the Hoosiers, the announcement of this renewed rivalry spawned a great deal of excitement among Kentucky fans and college hoops fans at large.
The pause in this rivalry stemmed from a dispute between Kentucky head coach John Calipari and former Indiana head coach Tom Crean, who were unable to agree upon whether the games should be played at Rupp Arena and Assembly Hall, each program's home court, or at a neutral site. A meeting for the 2012-13 season was canceled and a proposal for future meetings was then rejected.
But now it's coming back into the fold and should be absolutely big time. Indiana fans have long stated in the rivalry's pause that Calipari and Kentucky are scared to play in Bloomington. Wildcats fans, contrarily, have often called this rivalry beneath the stature of their program given a drop-off for the Hoosiers in the early-to-mid 2000s.
None of that will matter when one of the best rivalries in college hoops, a matchup where Kentucky leads the all-time series 32-25, is back on our TV screens.
