Schedule conflicts between UK sports forcing tough choices for fans. Why is it happening?

When Craig Skinner sat down to speak after the momentary exultation had ended, the UK coach was met with a sparse audience.

Kentucky volleyball had just extended its run as a modern-day dynasty, winning at least a share of the SEC championship for the sixth straight season with a three-set sweep of South Carolina inside Memorial Coliseum on Saturday, Nov. 26.

It was the latest title-winning moment for a program that has made hardware — both in conference play and national tournaments — a habit.

But precious few reporters were on hand in Memorial Coliseum’s media room to ask Skinner and some of his players about their latest triumph. (The Herald-Leader was in attendance for this postmatch press conference).

UK’s final volleyball match of the regular season — the one that gave the Wildcats yet another league championship — started just two hours before UK football’s marquee season finale at home against Louisville.

The volleyball match ended only 20 minutes before kickoff at Kroger Field, which helped explain the small media turnout and the announced crowd of 2,310 fans, a sizable number to be sure, but one that ranked as just the ninth-largest home crowd of the season for UK volleyball (out of 17 home matches).

This scheduling overlap was front and center in Skinner’s mind when he gave an opening statement to start his press conference.

“To be able to come through and pull this out, you can’t replace that feeling. I wish more people could be in the stands watching us,” Skinner said on the afternoon of Nov. 26. “My dream is that place is packed when we win championships and more people can be there to witness these women athletes perform at an elite level. They deserve it, hopefully one of these days.”

UK sports overlap has been common recently

This overlap marked the latest example of a home contest for a high-profile UK men’s sport occurring at the same time as a UK women’s sport.

Several instances this fall have seen UK volleyball matches take place in close time proximity to home football games.

This included Saturday, Sept. 24, when Kentucky volleyball had by far its smallest crowd of the season (621 fans) for a home match against LSU, which started just three hours before a UK football home game against Northern Illinois.

Following the SEC-clinching volleyball match on Nov. 26 — and after Skinner’s initial comments about the crowd size — the Herald-Leader asked Skinner to elaborate on his thoughts, particularly in relation to having a championship-deciding match scheduled so close in time to a home Governor’s Cup football game.

“It’s a systemic problem going on that women’s athletics has got to become a little bit more proactive in how we market, promote and make it a bigger deal than what we are currently making it, because our sport on its own merit has done a hell of a lot over the course of the years,” Skinner said. “I want us to have a sold out football stadium, but is it that we schedule it at a different time? When women’s athletics is at the demand that the level of men’s athletics (is), then we can be satisfied. But we’re not there yet.”

What did a pair of standout UK volleyball players — junior Reagan Rutherford and senior Azhani Tealer — have to say about increasing the profile of women’s college volleyball?

“I think we have a platform that we can use just through the sport, tell people about volleyball that haven’t experienced it,” Rutherford said. “Because it’s a fun game to watch and something that can grow. ... We’re the pioneers for that.”

“Craig always says the way we play (will make) people want to come out and play with us,” added Tealer. “So if people watch us and see how hard we play they’re going to want to invite their neighbors, their daughters to games. So I think just playing hard is going to translate.”

Crossover has also occurred several times this season for the UK men’s and women’s basketball teams.

Three of the first four UK women’s basketball home games (against Radford, Morehead State and Bellarmine) this season at Memorial Coliseum took place simultaneously with men’s basketball home games (against Howard, Duquesne and South Carolina State) at Rupp Arena.

Kentucky women’s basketball head coach Kyra Elzy was asked about this crossover on Nov. 18, and mentioned that one of her players had even brought it to her attention.

“Blair Green came and asked me the same thing (about women’s basketball games taking place at the same time as men’s basketball games),” Elzy said. “I hadn’t looked at the schedule that closely and she’s like, ‘Coach, why are we playing at the same time the men are playing? So we can come watch each other?’ I was like, ‘You know, that’s a great question.’”

“But we love men’s basketball, Coach Cal, what he means to me and their program, so there’s a lot of support for each other,” Elzy added. “I can’t wait (until) we don’t play on the same day so we actually can come see each other.”

What has caused this UK sports crossover, and will it continue?

According to a UK Athletics spokesperson, while Kentucky always looks to minimize scheduling conflicts between sports, that becomes a challenge when fall and winter sports are both in action in November.

But in particular with the men’s and women’s basketball programs, the schedule crossover in 2022 appears to be an outlier.

In November and December of 2019 and 2021, there were no instances of the UK men’s and women’s basketball teams both playing in Lexington on the same day, let alone at the same time.

Same-day crossover in Lexington occurred twice for the programs in late November 2020 at the start of the COVID-impacted 2020-21 season, but those games were not played at the same time.

So why has crossover occurred so often this year?

According to UK, there’s a couple reasons.

The UK men’s basketball team added a showcase non-conference series against Gonzaga in August, which was late in the scheduling process for the 2022-23 season. This meant changes had to be made to the men’s team’s November schedule, specifically with the Tribute Classic multi-team event (MTE) that featured Duquesne, Kentucky, North Florida and South Carolina State.

NCAA rules specify that a MTE needs to be played within a certain number of days. The addition of Gonzaga to Kentucky’s schedule forced the schedules of all the teams in the MTE to change, according to UK.

Additionally, there was a historic occurrence on the gridiron.

For the first time since 1911, Kentucky football played its last three games of the regular season at home.

A UK spokesperson told the Herald-Leader that basketball teams want to avoid playing at home on home football Saturdays, which took extra days out of the scheduling calendar.

What about the close time proximity between Kentucky football and volleyball on Nov. 26, when both UK teams were playing for prestigious trophies?

According to UK, the Wildcats were assigned an early time slot (1 p.m.) in that day’s SEC volleyball schedule without the knowledge of what time the Governor’s Cup football game would be played.

The window for the football game kickoff was any time between noon and 7:30 p.m., with the SEC and television networks not assigning a football kickoff time until 12 days before the game, according to UK.

The kickoff time of 3 p.m. for the football game against Louisville wasn’t given to UK until Nov. 14.

UK Athletics partnered with LexTran to offer a shuttle on Nov. 26 that went to and from Kroger Field and Memorial Coliseum for fans who wanted to watch both sporting events. The shuttle cost $1 per person per way and operated from noon (one hour before the volleyball match) until 3:30 p.m. (30 minutes after the football game began).

Something that is also part of the context for this is the unknown immediate future for the four UK women’s sports (gymnastics, STUNT, volleyball and women’s basketball) that call Memorial Coliseum home.

Planned renovations to Memorial Coliseum will probably force those four sports out of the historic facility during the 2023-24 school year, UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart previously told the Herald-Leader.

This could add increased scheduling complications come next school year, depending on where those sports will play.

UK has not announced where the temporary homes for those programs will be for their 2023-24 seasons.

Future UK sports crossover in December

It appears that most of the UK sports crossover is finished, at least for this year.

Only a handful of notable date conflicts remain between various UK sports:

▪ Saturday, Dec. 10: UK men’s basketball against Yale (in Lexington) at 1 p.m. and a potential NCAA Tournament Elite Eight volleyball match featuring UK (in San Diego) at 10 p.m.

▪ Saturday, Dec. 17: UK men’s basketball against UCLA (in New York City) at 5:15 p.m. and a potential NCAA Tournament volleyball championship match featuring UK (in Omaha) at 8 p.m.

▪ Wednesday, Dec. 21: UK women’s basketball against Ohio (in Lexington) at 11 a.m. and UK men’s basketball against Florida A&M (in Lexington) at 7 p.m.

▪ Saturday, Dec. 31: UK men’s basketball against Louisville (in Lexington) at noon and UK football against Iowa (in the Music City Bowl in Nashville) also at noon.