Suck it up, UK fans. This schedule is what you wanted

I don’t want to hear it, Kentucky fans.

I don’t want to hear one, single word of complaint about your Wildcats non-conference schedule. Because outside of a date with Baylor on December 1st, the only two relevant teams that the Cats will play at home in their non-conference schedule will be Marshall (blech) and Long Island (yuck).

Baylor is a top 25 team with quite a bit of size and athleticism. That will be an entertaining game. Marshall and LIU are both good enough to be tournament teams, which will provide some relevant matchups during the usually quite months of November and December.

But none of those can truly be considered marquee games, and when combined with the eight other games that the Wildcats will play at home, it means that it may not be worth it to purchase a ticket at Rupp until SEC play starts.

While I can understand why some members of Big Blue Nation will be upset by this — hey, I wouldn’t want to pay $75 for a ticket to a 9 pm tip between Kentucky and Samford, either — I have absolutely no sympathy.

This is what you wanted. This is Kentucky being a non-traditional program and scheduling in non-traditional ways. Remember how great you guys thought it was that John Calipari killed the rivalry with Indiana (which would have been played in Rupp this season, for what it’s worth) because Kentucky needs to play their marquee games in neutral sites to prepare for the NCAA tournament? This is what happens when all their marquee games are played at neutral sites. You have to watch the games on TV just like the rest of us.

Are you guys going to make fun of people that trumpet the atmosphere of on-campus games now?

This is, yet again, another genius maneuver by Coach Cal. He knows that, regardless of who Kentucky is playing, that he’ll sell out Rupp. He can prepare his team for the NCAA tournament without any threat to his program’s bottom line, because the bottom line is that Big Blue Nation is so passionate about their “Cayts” that every seat in the building will be filled regardless of their opponent.

And the irony here is that much of this schedule was not Calipari’s fault. He didn’t decide to play Notre Dame in Notre Dame, the schedule-makers of the SEC-Big East Invitational made that choice. Three of the games are part of the Barclays Center Classic. This also just so happened to be the year when Kentucky plays at Louisville. He would have gotten a home game with Indiana, but you know why that isn’t happening.

This is what you wanted, BBN.

You made your bed. Now sleep.

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.