Big Blue prepares for 2009-2010

Ira D. Combs
Syndicated Columnist
Tri State Sports Media Service Inc.

As we stroll through the lazy, hazy days of the 2009 summer, I thought it would be a good time to help folks prepare for the upcoming UK sports season and remind you of a few dates, special events, and various other topics to mark on the calendar in your homes and offices:

#1 - ESPN College Football Tour - Our nation's premier sports programming network, ESPN, has been televising a pre-season special on college football for a couple years now by touring the USA and featuring all 50 states' college football programs and their respective contributions to the sport in past years and highlighting present day players and each team's expectations for the upcoming season. The Bluegrass State is set to be featured on Tuesday, August 4th while the time of day for each respective show that day will be announced in this column in late July. The tour kicked off two weeks ago and the daily features are presently airing on ESPNU at 9:00 a.m. and being reran a couple times later on in the day at 10:00 a.m. and again at 4:00 p.m. It should be interesting to our fanbase to see how the ESPN folks perceive the Commonwealth's football fortunes and how the tide has changed the last few years from Louisville to Lexington.

#2 - New SEC Football TV Contract - The new SEC football contracts with CBS and ESPN kick into gear this fall and will provide those loyal southern football fans with even more coverage of their favorite sport this fall. The upgrade is that all SEC vs. SEC football games will be televised live either on CBS or the ESPN network which has four different stations to feature games on including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPN Classic. With the season opening game between UK-Miami of Ohio already picked up by ESPNU at noon on September 5th and the Louisville game sure to be picked up by someone this will only leave the UL Monroe and EKU games left to not be televised live as of this date. This turn of events could have one negative fact in the travel department for away games. While UK has established themselves as one of the better teams to have a travel fanbase for bowl games it will be interesting to watch college administrators keep track of how the fans travel to the away conference games now that they can stay home save money and still see the games on live TV.

#3 - UK Men's Hoops Schedule Update - UK and John Calipari's highly anticipated first edition Wildcat team is closing in on the finishing touches of the 2009-2010 hoops schedule and the initial month of November is all but set with the two exhibition games taking place on November 2nd vs. Campbellsville University and November 6th vs. Clarion College, Coach Cal's alma mater in Pennsylvania. The lid lifter to the Calipari era will be against in-state foe Morehead State on November 13th with the Cancun Challenge opening two rounds taking place at Rupp Arena on November 19th vs. Sam Houston State and November 21st vs. Rider College then traveling on to Cancun, Mexico for the final two rounds on November 24th vs. Cleveland State and November 25th vs. the winner or loser of Virginia-Stanford. For travel packages to the Cancun Challenge contact Melissa Koza at 970-672-0567 or go online to www.cancunchallenge.net

#4 - July Live Hoops Recruiting Period - If you think it's difficult ranking teams in college basketball and football, then try your skills at how to evaluate and rate the individual college basketball prospects coming out of high school the next few years this month as they appear at the various recruiting service type tournaments and classics. Two of the most popular and highy recognized events are within the Tri-State area in early July. The Adidas High-Five Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio July 6th, 7th, and 8th and the Kentucky Hoopfest in Louisville July 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th. Both of these summer hoopfest events take place at several different venues within Cincinnati and Louisville but, the primary venue for each will be the home courts of UC- Fifth Third Center and UL- Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center in the East Wing. Games begin at 9:00 a.m. each day and run until 10:00 p.m. Several of the nation's top high school basketball players are expected at both events and virtually a who's who of the college basketball coaching fraternity will be in attendance. These events are open to the public but there will be a daily admission charge or you can purchase a tournament pass to each at the door.

#5 - UK and Brooks Test New SEC Coaches - The NCAA Division 1-A football coaching fraternity has 22 new members this year and three of them reside in the SEC. UK and Rich Brooks will get to do battle with all three in 2009. First up will be Auburn on October 17th at Auburn where those southern pigskin gurus ran Tommy Tuberville out of town and hired Gene Chizik. Then on Halloween night, October 31st, Misissippi State and it's new coach Dan Mullen will come to Commonwealth Stadium and the finale of the 2009 regular season on November 28th will be when Ole Rocky Top comes riding into the Bluegrass with it's new saviour Lane Kiffin, an Al Davis Raider castoff. With the Phil Fulmer era painfully over for the Wildcat fanbase theirs only one way to go with the Vols in the future.

#6 - SEC Bowl's and UK - Dates have been finalized for the mid to low level Bowls with SEC ties and they are: Music City Bowl - Nashville, Tennessee December 27th; Independence Bowl - Shreveport, Louisiana December 28th; Chick-Fil-A Bowl - Atlanta, Georgia December 31st; PapaJohns.com Bowl - Birmingham, Alabama January 2nd; Auto Zone Liberty Bowl - Memphis, Tennessee January 2nd. Obviously, it's a complete mystery as to how the Cats will play out on the field this season but since the program is on a roll it's definitely worthy of predictions so here goes. If Brooks and company have everything to fall in place with no major injuries the schedule is still too much to overcome so 7-5 is the best and that would land the Cats in Nashville or Atlanta. A more realistic prediction would put the Cats at 6-6 and a bid to the SEC's newest bowl in Birmingham where it would give the PapaJohns.com Bowl a big shot in the arm in attendance and TV ratings with the travel party UK will bring to town. I doubt any UK fan desires a return trip to any spot in Tennessee.

#7 - UK Kickoff Luncheon Set for July 31- The annual Kentucky Football Kickoff Luncheon has been set for Friday, July 31, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Lexington.

During the luncheon, fans will hear Coach Rich Brooks' plans for the 2009 season as he attempts to guide the Wildcats to an unprecedented fourth-consecutive bowl trip. Fans also will have the opportunity to ask questions of the head coach. The event is capped by the always-popular highlight video, which chronicles the successes of the 2008 season and the AutoZone Liberty Bowl championship.

Individual tickets cost $40 each and a table of 10 costs $400. Parking will be available in the High Street parking lot across from the hotel. For reservations, contact Leslie Bray at 859-257-2589 or leslie.bray@uky.edu.

#8 - New Website Featuring UK & KHSAA - Tri-State Sports Media Service director Ira D. Combs is finalizing plans for a new website to be launched on August 1st that will feature all the different events and media avenues and outlets the independent sports communications company uses to cover and promote UK football and basketball as well as the KHSAA. The call letters and website address to go online and pull up the new website will be www.CombsBrothersonKYsports.com and will involve Ira D. Combs and Harold A. Combs with the eldest male member of the family, Oscar, hopefully taking a small part in the website with a more historical angle of UK sports. Ira D. and Harold A. Combs are both retired high school basketball coaches and athletic directors who worked closely for many years with UK basketball coaches Joe B. Hall, Eddie Sutton, and Rick Pitino and their summer basketball camps while Oscar Combs is well known for his talents in sports journalism and being the founder/guru of Wildcat News Company and The Cats Pause which was the first ever college sports magazine devoted exclusively to covering a college sports program. The Tri-State Sports Media Service founded by Ira D. Combs has been covering UK football/basketball and KHSAA sports since 2004.