Posted on Sun, Mar. 16, 2008

UK FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK

'Good times' in Bowling Green

HILLTOPPERS HAPPY WITH FIRST-EVER GAME VS. CATS

By Chip Cosby

HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

Chip Cosby

It was quite a week at Western Kentucky.

In addition to the men's and women's basketball programs securing automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament, the Hilltoppers finalized a deal to come to Lexington next fall for the first-ever football matchup with the University of Kentucky.

"It's pretty good times around the office," Western Kentucky athletics director Dr. Wood Selig said.

Western, in its second year of its transition to Division I-A football, won't officially compete in Sun Belt Conference play until 2009. Its temporary status as an independent allows WKU some schedule flexibility.

The Sun Belt Conference was in the process of re-arranging some league games to accommodate an ESPN made-for-TV game between Alabama and Clemson. When all was said and done, Western ended up with an open date on Sept. 27, the same date UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart was looking to find a game.

"It came about very late in the process," Selig said. "It was just one of those flukes that just happened to occur. It made absolute sense for us to try and accommodate Kentucky."

The move will provide Western with a financial windfall. The Hilltoppers will get $560,000 for the game, and will also get 4,000 tickets. The tickets will be available only to Western athletic association fund members and season-ticket holders.

"We'll really be able to maximize the value of those tickets," Selig said. "Our ticket office has been flooded with phone calls already."

Profits from the game will go toward Western's $50 million renovation of Houchens Industries/L.T. Smith Stadium.

"This game will allow us to add the 'wow' factor to our football complex," Selig said. "We'll be able to get a Hall of Champions with life-size photos of Western alums in the NFL, and players and coaches."

It will also provide Western with another BCS opponent to help showcase its fledgling program. The Toppers lost 49-3 at defending national champion Florida last year and will play Alabama and Indiana in addition to UK.

"It's a high-profile game," Selig said of the UK-Western tilt. "When we made the transition to I-A, we made it to have a higher profile for our program, and the Kentucky game will help accomplish our goals."

And while the Kentucky game will benefit Western's football program in the long term, Selig said the Toppers won't take the attitude of coming to Lexington to get a paycheck and take a whuppin'.

"We've had 12 consecutive winning seasons in our football program, and our goal in 2008 is going to be a 13th straight winning season," Selig said. "We've scheduled aggressively, but we will not alter our goals. With any schedule challenges we may face, we expect to fully compete."

MAC break for UK

The Mid-American Conference has historically been a big part of the University of Kentucky's football schedule, as the Wildcats have played a MAC team five out of the last seven years and also four straight seasons from 1990-93.

But scheduling issues within the MAC have led to the postponement of two previously scheduled games with UK for the 2008 season and have put any future plans on hold.

Last year, the MAC requested out of Kentucky's scheduled trip to Philadelphia to play Temple. The conference did provide Kent State as a replacement opponent, which gave UK an extra home game.

Kentucky was scheduled to host both Akron and Temple in 2008, but once again the MAC asked out of those games, forcing UK into scramble mode to fill its schedule.

The MAC had agreed to help UK find replacements, possibly from within the MAC, but talks with Miami University fell through.

Kentucky ended up replacing Akron with Middle Tennessee and Temple with Western Kentucky.

UK was scheduled to travel to Akron in 2009 to open the Zips' new stadium, but Barnhart said this week that any future scheduling between Kentucky and the MAC will have to be re-evaluated at a later date.

MAC Commissioner Rick Chryst said the league has faced some serious scheduling issues after bringing Temple into the league as its 13th football team in 2007. The Owls had a full slate of contracted games as an independent before joining the league.