Changes in the Kentucky football schedule will give the Wildcats eight home games in the 2007 season, along with a Thursday night ESPN game at South Carolina.
The schedule changes are:
At the request of the Mid-American Conference, Kentucky will play Kent State at home on Sept. 8 instead of a road game at Temple, giving the Wildcats eight home games during the coming season. It will be the first time in school history that UK will play eight contests at home.
The change was initiated by the MAC, with Temple joining the conference this year, in order to resolve some league scheduling issues. Temple will play at Kentucky as scheduled in the 2008 season and the Wildcats now will play in Philadelphia in 2011.
?We?ve had a good relationship with the Mid-American Conference and the league schools. We?re glad to help them with this situation,? said Rob Mullens, UK Deputy Director of Athletics, who coordinates football schedules. ?We?re excited to bring an eighth home game to the Wildcat fans this year.?
The Kentucky at South Carolina game will be televised by ESPN on Thurs. Oct. 4.
The Kentucky at Arkansas game, originally scheduled for Sept. 29, has been moved to Sept. 22. The Florida Atlantic at Kentucky game, originally scheduled for Sept. 22, has been moved to Sept. 29.
These two dates were switched to help schedule the Thursday night game; otherwise Kentucky would have had to play back-to-back SEC road games with only four days between games.
?We appreciate the cooperation from Arkansas and Florida Atlantic to help make the nationally televised game at South Carolina a reality,? Mullens said.
The updated 2007 Kentucky football schedule:
Sept. 1 – Eastern Kentucky
Sept. 8 – Kent State
Sept. 15 – Louisville
Sept. 22 – at Arkansas
Sept. 29 – Florida Atlantic
Oct. 4 – at South Carolina
Oct. 13 – LSU
Oct. 20 – Florida
Oct. 27 – Mississippi State
Nov. 3 – open
Nov. 10 – at Vanderbilt
Nov. 17 – at Georgia
Nov. 24 – Tennessee
Kentucky will have perhaps the most attractive home schedule in America. UK?s Southeastern Conference games are against LSU, Florida, Mississippi State, and Tennessee. All four non-conference matchups will be played at home. Two games will be against in-state foes Louisville and Eastern Kentucky; the other two opponents are coached by former Wildcat players ? Howard Schnellenberger of Florida Atlantic and Doug Martin at Kent State.
