Vicky Graff Photo
If Big Blue Nation had a vote, Mark Pope’s suggestion about going to a 40-game schedule for college basketball would be unanimously approved.
The first-year coach can have just about anything he wants in the state after already securing wins over Duke, Gonzaga and Louisville and putting his team into the top five of the national rankings in December. Even the stunning loss to Ohio State still leaves UK at 10-2 despite having a completely new roster this year.
However, the rest of college basketball might need a little more time to digest Pope’s suggestion/recommendation.
“I am going to give you good stuff today but it is going to be spicy,” Pope said at a recent press conference.
He had indicated when he was hired at Kentucky that he would not mind UK going back to the Maui Invitational, a trip former coach John Calipari wanted no part of. However, last week said while the trip was “great for our team, great for our fans” that it also came at a “cost in a bunch of different ways.” He noted that with NIL and revenue sharing and the increased number of conference games makes it more difficult for a school like Kentucky to give home revenue producing home games to play in an event like the Maui Invitational.
Pope said while he would like to go to Maui every year, it would be even better to have a 40-game college basketball season. Currently a team likely would have to make the NCAA Tournament championship game to play that many games. The current NCAA record for the most games played in a single season is by the UConn 2011 national championship team and the Michigan national runner-up team in 2018.
Pope would like to change the standard 31-game regular-season schedule to 40 games before postseason play and would not object if some of those games were high-profile exhibition matchups like some teams have played the last few years.
“Let us get to 40 games, guys, let’s just get to 40 games,” Pope said. “And you know what? It’s fine if you want to make four or six of those preseason games, like, in the league, great. Make more exhibition games, I’m all in.
“I think, for me, as we inherit these teams that are newer, that are less familiar, that have less staying power, making the season longer is going to give us a better product. You kind of have to build a team in one season. It’s not just us, a lot of people are feeling that.”
Kentucky has an all-new roster this year and many teams have an almost new roster. That’s what the transfer portal and NIL have created and Pope knows that is no going away even though he hopes to retain several players off this year’s roster to play for Kentucky next year along with incoming freshmen and transfers.
Pope knows a 40-game schedule would add revenue but also have one other intriguing possibility — better preparing players for an 82-game NBA schedule.
“It makes a huge difference in another revenue stream. It gives you a huge opportunity to go play other teams,” Pope said. “If we would finally pass this and change this legislation where we can play DI opponents without having some kind of makeshift (events) where we’re just allowed to play DI opponents in an exhibition game, I think that’s great for basketball. I think that’s gonna allow unbelievable home-and-home matchups.
“We have sports that are playing well over 40 games in college right now, so I know our guys can handle it academically and still be great students. I think it preps our guys better for moving on to the NBA. When I went to the league, by the time I got to the All-Star Break, I was like, ‘This is insanity!’ I mean, we played 10 more games already before we got to the All-Star break than I had in my whole college career — and their games are longer.
“So bumping this number up, I think helps guys professionally and I think it fits in better with this NIL era. That gives you the chance to have the flexibility to maybe go jump into really special MTEs, too. That’s the solution I’m pushing for.”
Former UK coach John Calipari has pushed for the NCAA to alter the playing calendar to avoid having college basketball go against the NFL and college football in November and December. He also thought there should be a way for college basketball to do more in the summer.
Calipari’s ideas never caught on. Pope is not sure if anyone will really pay attention to whatever he is suggesting or not.
“I don’t know if a lot of people are listening yet, but I’d love it if we got there at some point,” he said about the 40-game schedule against Division I competition.
4 Responses
And next thing you know the players will be asking more NIL money to play such a schedule. Merry Christmas Larry Vaught and the BBN faithful.
DITTO & same to you!
I didn’t know that 2 of our guys Carr and Chandler got engaged on there trip to New York! This is why we got beat by 20. That’s a huge distraction and if it was going to happen it should have happened when the season was over. This is a big step and takes alot of dedication that is distracting to basketball. You can say I’m reaching but it really is a very big distraction. Maybe that’s why Chandler doesn’t look as excited on the court as he once did. Idk maybe I’m reaching but its very weird that a weaker Ohio state team drills us by 20 and was destroyed by Auburn by almost 40 points. You can’t tell me that these 2 engagements on the same day didn’t play a part. I wouldn’t be as focused on the game if I was planning on getting married. It just comes at a strange time.
40 games plus the tournaments are a bit much, unless they are going to do away with academics altogether. Pope is wanting to get 3 seasons of experience out of two. It will be another 3 years before we actually see a complete Mark Pope team and that’s assuming that the NCAA reins in the runaway NIL and transfer portal nonsense.
The NCAA should require that anyone playing on scholarship must graduate before leaving for a pro team. A 2.0 gpa should be required with a semester waiting period AFTER the gpa is back above 2.0. Artificial intelligence will make this harder than ever to enforce. A kid can go pro right out of high school, but once they accept a college scholarship, they aren’t eligible for even G league play for 3 years; no hardship exceptions. Nationwide limits need to be set on NIL; one team should not be able to offer anymore than any other team. The transfer portal should allow one transfer in the off season without any waiting period. A second, and final transfer will be allowed during the off season, but it will require a one year wait period.
Without these changes, the era of the true student athlete has come to an end with colleges becoming farm teams for the pro organizations.