Indiana University is ending a decades-long basketball rivalry with the University of Kentucky after a disagreement about where future games should be played. IU athletic director Fred Glass sent a statement Thursday saying the Hoosiers would no longer play the Wildcats during the regular season after it was suggested the two teams meet at neutral off-site locations for the games. But UK officials said these were the terms of a verbal agreement after Indiana’s loss to Kentucky in the NCAA Championships.
UK officials said they were under the impression talks would continue, and negotiations were not closed. "At no point did we ever have any mutual discussions with Indiana to end the series," said UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart in a statement to the media. Glass said the agreement was under the insistence of UK. And says he wanted the two teams to continue alternating games at school-sites. The two teams used to play at off-site locations: they alternated between Louisville’s Freedom Hall and Indianapolis’s Hoosier Hall for several years, but that ended in 2006. The schedules will not be set in stone until later this year, but neither side provided additional information regarding future conversations. The two teams have played every year since 1969.
