John Calipari and his Kentucky Wildcats finally found out what life is going to look in the new Southeastern Conference.The SEC released conference schedules for its 14 teams on Friday and UK learned whom it will play and when. Of particular interest are the Cats’ first matchups with the league’s newest members, Texas A&M and Missouri. UK will host the Aggies in its second conference game on Saturday, Jan. 12 at 4 p.m. ET on the SEC Network and then travel to College Station, Texas for a game on Saturday, Feb. 2 at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN. Kentucky’s lone game against Missouri will quite the event, as the Wildcats will host the Tigers for an ESPN College GameDay game on Saturday, Feb. 23 at 9 p.m. ET.As is the case annually, UK will be a fixture on national television, playing 13 games on either CBS, ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU in addition to the five national television games it will play during the nonconference schedule. All told, UK will play 18 nationally televised games with coverage information for games against Louisville and Baylor still to be announced.The last remnants of divisional play are gone, as the Cats will play 18 total games, including two each against five different conference foes and one against all remaining SEC schools. The Wildcats will take on former Eastern division rivals Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Florida, while Auburn, in addition to Texas A&M, will also match up twice against UK.Beginning with the 2012-13 season, each SEC team will be assigned one permanent rival to play two times a season – UK’s is Florida. The other four will rotate on an annual basis. The SEC Basketball Tournament semifinals and championship game will be shown on ABC. The SEC Network will broadcast games on Wednesday and Thursday in addition to the Friday
night games. ESPNU will televise the two afternoon games on Friday at
the tournament, which this year will be played March 13-17 in Nashville,
Tenn.Below is UK’s complete schedule for all games this season. Note that tip times and television information will be released at a later date for some games.Oct.12 (Fri) – BIG BLUE MADNESS – 7:30 p.m. ETOct. 24 (Wed) – BLUE-WHITE GAME – 7:00 p.m. ETNov. 1 (Thurs) – NORTHWOOD (exh.) TBANov. 5 (Mon) – TRANSYLVANIA (exh.) TBANov. 9 (Fri) – 1 vs. Maryland [ESPN] – 8:30 p.m. ETNov. 13 (Tues) – 2 vs. Duke [ESPN] – 9:30 p.m. ETNov. 16 (Fri) – 3 LAFAYETTE (PA) – TBANov. 21 (Wed) – 3 MOREHEAD STATE – TBANov. 23 (Fri) – 3 LONG ISLAND UNIV. – TBANov. 29 (Thu) – 4 at Notre Dame [ESPN2] – 7:00 p.m. ETDec. 1 (Sat) – BAYLOR – TBADec. 4 (Tues) – SAMFORD – TBADec. 8 (Sat) – PORTLAND – [ESPN] Noon ETDec. 15 (Sat) – LIPSCOMB – TBADec. 22 (Sat) – MARSHALL [ESPN2] – 4:00 p.m. ETDec. 29 (Sat) – at Louisville – TBAJan. 2 (Wed) – EASTERN MICHIGAN – TBAJan. 10 (Thurs) – at Vanderbilt [ESPN/ESPN2] – 9:00 p.m. ETJan. 12 (Sat) – TEXAS A&M [SEC Network] – 4:00 p.m. ETJan. 15 (Tues) – TENNESSEE [ESPN] – 7:00 p.m. ETJan. 19 (Sat) – at Auburn [ESPNU] – TBAJan. 22 (Tues) – at Alabama [ESPN] – 9:00 p.m. ETJan. 26 (Sat) – LSU [SEC Network] – 4:00 p.m. ETJan. 29 (Tues) – at Ole Miss [ESPN] – 9:00 p.m. ETFeb. 2 (Sat) – at Texas A&M [ESPN] – 6:00 p.m. ETFeb. 5 (Tues) – SOUTH CAROLINA [ESPNU] – 9:00 p.m. ETFeb. 9 (Sat) – AUBURN [SEC Network] – 4:00 p.m. ETFeb. 12 (Tues) – at Florida [ESPN] – 7:00 p.m. ETFeb. 16 (Sat) – at Tennessee [CBS Sports] – 1:00 p.m. ETFeb. 20 (Wed) – VANDERBILT [SEC Network] – 8:00 p.m. ETFeb. 23 (Sat) – MISSOURI [ESPN GameDay] – 9:00 p.m. ETFeb. 27 (Wed) – MISSISSIPPI STATE [SEC Network] – 8:00 p.m. ETMarch 2 (Sat) – at Arkansas [CBS Sports] – 4:00 p.m. ETMarch 7 (Thurs) – at Georgia [ESPN/ESPN2] – 7:00 p.m. ETMarch 9 (Sat) – FLORIDA [CBS Sports] – Noon ETAs of August 10, 2012 – HOME GAMES in BOLD CAPSAll dates and times are subject to change.1- Barclays Center Classic (Barclays Center, Brooklyn, N.Y.); 2-State Farm Champions Classic (Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Ga.); 3- Barclays Center Classic (Rupp Arena, Lexington, Ky.); 4-SEC/Big East Challenge (The Joyce Center, South Bend, Ind.)