Indiana–Kentucky rivalry

The Indiana–Kentucky rivalry is a college sports rivalry between the Indiana University Hoosiers and the University of Kentucky Wildcats. The rivalry between these two schools, located about 180 miles (290 km) apart, dates to their first college football game in 1893, and has continued across all sports, with the men's basketball series gaining particular attention. The football game was previously played for a wooden Bourbon Barrel trophy, which was discontinued in 1999.

Indiana and Kentucky played against each other in men's basketball for the first time on December 18, 1924. Since 1969 the two teams have met at least once a season. The location of the game alternates between Assembly Hall in Bloomington and Rupp Arena in Lexington. From 1991 to 2005, the game was held at neutral sites in Indianapolis and Louisville. A scheduling conflict with Louisville's Freedom Hall in 2006 forced the series back to the schools' respective campuses. Of the 55 games between IU and UK, 48 have been played in December. There have been a total of six overtime games in this rivalry series, the most for any non-conference Kentucky rival. The rivalry has been the subject of substantial commentary and media interest. ESPN commentator Dick Vitale said of the rivalry, "Don't you get excited in the world of basketball thinking about Kentucky and Indiana playing? Two Goliaths, two elite programs." Fellow commentator Eamonn Brennan called it "one of the great nonconference rivalries in the sport, which features the two storied, flagship, blueblood programs from the nation's two most basketball-obsessed states, states which just so happen to share a border." The intensity of the rivalry is augmented by the proximity of Indiana and Kentucky. Although the two teams had played every season since 1969, a dispute over whether future games should be played at the schools' respective home courts or at nearby neutral sites led to the cancellation of the game for the 2012–13 season.

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