Kentucky, Indiana finalize four-year series starting in '25-26

Kentucky head coach John Calipari — Scott Utterback/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

A four-year series between the Kentucky Wildcats and Indiana Hoosiers has been finalized, the first matchup scheduled for the 2025-26 college basketball season.

Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports and College Hoops Today broke the news Tuesday, followed by UK Athletics confirming shortly after.

The series will get rolling in Lexington in ’25-26, that matchup played inside Rupp Arena on Dec. 20, 2025. From there, the Wildcats will travel to Indianapolis to take on the Hoosiers inside Lucas Oil Stadium on Dec. 27, 2026, followed by a return trip to Lexington and Rupp Arena on Dec. 18, 2027.

And then the big finale: John Calipari’s return trip to Assembly Hall, that game scheduled for Dec. 16, 2028.

Kentucky has not played Indiana since the 2016 NCAA Tournament, a Round of 32 loss to the Hoosiers in Des Moines. That changes starting in two years.

How the return of Kentucky vs. Indiana came together

John Calipari previously confirmed the return of the series at SEC Media Days last October, adding that the series would return in ’25-26, but details were still in the works.

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“We’ve agreed in principle that we’ll be playing them,” Calipari said. “It’ll start in ’25-26. But it’s at the administrative level now, so all the details will be worked out.”

IU head coach Mike Woodson previously said he would do everything in his power to get the home-and-home series back, making it clear he wanted games at Rupp Arena and Assembly Hall.

“I’m not going to let it die,” Woodson said. “I’m going to stay on [Calipari’s] heels about getting the Kentucky-Indiana series back on the table because I just think over the years, man, that was a hell of a game, going to Lexington and them coming down to Bloomington.”

Woodson got his wish, but it won’t come until the final year of the agreement in ’28-29.

Kentucky leads the overall series 32-25, the Wildcats’ last win coming in the 2012 Sweet 16, a 102-90 victory en route to the program’s eighth national championship just over a week later.