Bob Stoops weighs in on the "basketball school" comments

Even if the rest of us are ready to move on, the sports world is still buzzing about the mess that John Calipari, Mark Stoops, and Mitch Barnhart made last week. The “feud” has been a talking point on shows across the country today, with Paul Finebaum going as for to say that Calipari’s “basketball school” comments are a sign Kentucky should cut ties with the Hall of Famer. That’s obviously a hot take — and a major overreaction if you ask me — but others are also weighing in, including Bob Stoops, Mark and Mike’s famous older brother.

During an appearance on “The Morning Animals” on 98.1 FM in Oklahoma City, Bob Stoops was asked about the drama in Lexington. While he shied away from the fracas, he did defend his brother by saying that college football is the breadwinner and a strong football program rises all boats.

“I have and they’re doing great,” Stoops said when asked if he’d spoken to his brothers recently. “They love their team and feel really positive about the way the team’s progressing. I’m not going to get in the middle of any of that. They both have their points and truly though, someone was asking me about whatever and I said, no reason you can’t — the best schools do well in both and succeed in both.

“Let’s face it, there’s a lot of money in college football. I’m not so sure — when’s the last time there’s been conference realignment talks around basketball? Not sure, but probably not a whole lot. I’m just saying, that would be never. That would be never. Point being, there’s a lot of SEC money and money that goes into having a really good, quality strong college football program and that money gets spread around to all sports.”

He’s not wrong. Even Calipari said something similar in between “basketball school” bombs, pointing out that football’s success “makes the jobs of all of us easier.” Hopefully, the powers that be can put their egos aside and we can go back to celebrating the success of all of Kentucky’s great programs, from football to basketball to track, rifle, and tennis.