Mitch Barnhart Non-Committal on Future of Governor's Cup

On3 imageby:Nick Roush06/21/22

RoushKSR

As the SEC debates the future of its football scheduling, the fate of the Governor’s Cup hangs in the balance. Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart is unsure what will happen with the series if the league expands its annual conference football schedule to nine games.

“I want to see where we go with that deal,” Barnhart told the Courier Journal’s Jon Hale. “That certainly makes our schedule way different. We’ve done a really good job of managing the eight and the four non-conference games. With Louisville, that gives you nine (Power 5) games.”

Texas and Oklahoma will force the league to reshape its schedule when the teams join the league in 2025. There are two options on the table. The league could expand to nine SEC games, preserving three annual rivals per team while rotating between the other six opponents. They could also keep an eight-game format, including only one annual rival while rotating between seven other SEC opponents.

Mark Stoops shared with KSR Friday morning that the majority of the SEC’s coaches currently prefer the 8-game model. Although no formal decisions were made in Destin, at the SEC Spring Meetings Barnhart and Stoops help turned the tide in favor of the 8-game model, citing the numerous non-conference rivalry games in the final week of the regular season.

If UK loses the fight to keep the 8-game schedule, Kentucky could keep the Governor’s Cup alive. However, it would come at a cost, most likely impacting FCS football programs. This year UK will host Stoops’ hometown team, Youngstown State, and pay the Penguins’ athletic department $550,000 for the trip to Lexington.

“It’s important to support FCS football because I want people participating in college football,” Barnhart said. “I think sometimes we forget about thinking about the end game, making sure everybody is still playing. If there’s opportunities that go away and there’s not kids that want to play the game of football, the game of football suffers. We’ve got to make sure we do things that ensure the game of football and people want to play the game. Keeping FCS football alive is very, very important to that end.”

All of that word salad cannot make the FCS game more significant than the rivalry against Louisville. Still, Barnhart will not take the Governor’s Cup off the negotiation table. After all, it’s one of his greatest pieces of leverage to prevent the SEC from expanding its conference schedule. Even though the game is under contract until 2030, Kentucky’s athletic director will not commit to playing Louisville until after a scheduling decision has been finalized by Southeastern Conference officials.

[Courier Journal]

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