ESPN College GameDay Returns to Rupp Arena on Jan. 20
LEXINGTON, Ky. – With the Florida-Kentucky game as its backdrop, ESPN College GameDay will be at Rupp Arena on Jan. 20.
Admission will be free and fans are encouraged to attend the event. Seats for the show will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors will open at 9 a.m.
ESPN made the announcement Tuesday during the Texas A&M-UK game. It’s the second straight season College GameDay will feature the Wildcats on their home floor. The Jan. 20 show will be the first College GameDay show of the season.
The ESPN College GameDay crew of Rece Davis, Jay Bilas, Jay Williams and Seth Greenberg will air its popular game-day show on ESPN starting at 11 a.m. inside Rupp Arena. The GameDay crew will preview the Florida-UK game, which will tip at 8:15 p.m. on ESPN. Bilas, Dan Shulman and Maria Taylor will be on the call for the game.
Normal game-day policies at Rupp Arena will be in place, including the bag policy that requires that bags do not exceed 12″ x 6″ x 12″. Rupp Arena will also use walkthrough metal detectors, as it has all season. For more information on the game-day policies, please click here. Signs will be permitted at the show, though they are subject to screening for the telecast.
Paid parking will be available in the High Street and Manchester Street parking lots throughout Saturday.
All students attending ESPN College Gameday and/or the Florida-UK game in the eRUPPtion Zone may begin lining up at the Rupp Arena student gate no earlier than 5 a.m. on Saturday. Rupp Arena staff will coordinate with students in line to determine their intent to attend the 8:15 p.m. game vs. Florida.
Students with an eRUPPtion Zone ticket who are attending both ESPN College GameDay and the 8:15 p.m. game vs. Florida will receive numbered wristbands and be required to return to line at the student gate by 5 p.m. Upon return to the student gate at 5 p.m., students will be placed in numbered wristband order in preparation for arena doors opening at 6:45 p.m. Students who return to the student gate after 5 p.m. will be placed at the end of the line.
This will be UK’s 15th ESPN College GameDay appearance overall, behind only North Carolina (17), and the seventh trip to Lexington, Kentucky, tied with Duke and Kansas. It’s the eighth straight season Kentucky is making an appearance on the show.
The most memorable trip was on Feb. 13, 2010, when a record 22,144 fans attended the show in John Calipari’s first season at Kentucky. Another 15,087 attended the morning GameDay show on Feb. 23, 2013.
With a 5-9 record in College GameDay appearances, the Wildcats will look to snap a four-game losing streak with the show in town.
The Florida-UK matchup seems like an appropriate game to tip off the College GameDay season. The two schools are among the favorites to win a much-improved Southeastern Conference. Some national analysts project as many as eight teams from the league to make the NCAA Tournament.
The Wildcats and the Gators have produced some memorable moments over the years, but the Wildcats own the overall edge in the series 100-38 and have won six of the last seven matchups.
This will mark the eighth College GameDay visit for the UK-Florida matchup. Only the Duke-North Carolina rivalry (nine games) has featured more College GameDay appearances. The Gators have won six of the seven matchups vs. the Wildcats on College Gameday, but five of the games have appeared on Florida’s home floor.
For the latest on the Kentucky men’s basketball team, follow @KentuckyMBB on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
