That Time Kentucky and Eastern Michigan Played Before the Kentucky Derby

Horses race in front of empty grandstands at the 2020 Kentucky Derby, via Michael Clevenger:Courier Journal via Imagn Content Services, LLC — Horses race in front of empty grandstands at the 2020 Kentucky Derby, via Michael Clevenger/Courier Journal via Imagn Content Services, LLC

Kentucky and Eastern Michigan will go toe-to-toe Saturday night at Kroger Field. This game is kicking off five years late.

The Wildcats were set to host the Eagles to start the 2020 season for the final game of a three-game series. A pandemic caused a change of plans.

It’s not fun to think about how the world operated during the days when COVID-19 dominated all walks of life. For this website to continue to operate, we had to empty the clip on all “summer radio” topics. I created a “BBNBA Jam” hypothetical tournament of past Kentucky teams that accounted for a month’s worth of content. Stuff like that filled the gaps between news, and the news was much of the same.

“The Big Ten isn’t playing football. The SEC is changing this schedule. A bubble is being created in Florida to complete the NBA playoffs.”

There was plenty of uncertainty as officials tried to navigate through the pandemic. That meant jumping through plenty of hoops to get back to sports. While Kevin Warren and the Big Ten tried to torpedo those efforts, Greg Sankey and the SEC made it happen.

The original plan did not deviate from the original plan. Kentucky was scheduled to play its normal 2020 football schedule, but with a slight change.

The Kentucky Derby was moved from the First Saturday in May to the First Saturday in September. It was delayed in the hopes that restrictions would lighten enough for spectators to visit Churchill Downs, but that ultimately was not the case.

You know what else was scheduled for the First Saturday in September? Kentucky vs. Eastern Michigan.

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To accommodate, and really get our hopes up, UK announced in June that the season opener would move up to Thursday night. It would have been only the eighth Thursday night game in Kentucky football history, and one hell of a way to cap off Thurby, before the Oaks-Derby marathon. I can’t think of a three-day sports run more in my wheelhouse than this.

Unfortunately, it was only wishful thinking.

Six weeks later, Greg Sankey announced the SEC would not play non-conference games during the 2020 campaign. Each team would play a 10-game conference schedule, beginning on Sept. 26.

Instead of a Kentucky Football-Oaks-Derby Trifecta, we were forced to wait another month to watch the Wildcats on the gridiron, and five years to see Eastern Michigan in Lexington. The one positive — SheDarestheDevil pulled off an Oaks upset, which is still the biggest lick I’ve ever hit.

It’s still weird to hear the Kentucky Derby run in silence. What’s even weirder? Tiz the Law got upset by Authentic. That horse went on to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic and I thought it never had a shot. Bob Freaking Baffert, man.

Kentucky was Supposed to Play at Eastern Michigan

This is just the third meeting in the series, but it has two scheduling oddities. Kentucky was actually supposed to play in Ypsilanti.

In the original contract, Kentucky got two home games with the Eagles in exchange for a road trip to play at Eastern Michigan. Even though Ypsilanti is not known as a popular tourism destination, I was fired up to see the gray turf at The Factory. Mitch Barnhart thought differently. The Cats bought out that 2019 road trip for $800,00 and moved it to Kroger Field.