Michigan was supposed to play Kentucky in Rupp Arena this season. What happened?

The full non-conference schedule for the upcoming Kentucky men’s basketball season is expected to be officially released any day now.

One prominent name won’t be on it.

In late 2019, a three-game series was announced between UK and Michigan — two storied programs that hadn’t met in the regular season since 1970 — and the unique agreement was to feature one game in Lexington, one game in Ann Arbor, and one game in London, England.

That series is now finished, with zero games played on American soil.

A few months after the original agreement was announced between the two sides, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and scrambled the plans. The amended contracts had Michigan hosting UK for the 2021-22 season, the London game set for December 2022, and the Cats getting the Wolverines at home during the 2023-24 season.

The finale of the three-game series was scheduled to take place Dec. 2 in Rupp Arena, with Kentucky hosting the Wolverines in what should have been a Saturday matchup high on national name value. Instead, that spot on UK’s calendar is expected to be occupied by UNC Wilmington when the official non-conference schedule is released in the coming days.

Documents obtained by the Herald-Leader over the past few weeks show that Michigan officials first reached out to UK on Feb. 27 to express intent to cancel the game in Lexington, and — as requested by UK — Michigan Director of Athletics Warde Manuel sent UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart a formal letter, signed May 1, informing him that the Wolverines would not be making the trip to Lexington for the game this season.

Manuel also wrote in the letter that Michigan would pay UK a $100,000 cancellation fee, per the original agreement between the two programs.

This exchange came after Kentucky effectively did the same thing to Michigan two seasons earlier. Barnhart sent Manuel a letter in 2021 informing him that Kentucky had decided not to play the Wolverines in Ann Arbor during the 2021-22 season, also noting that UK would pay Michigan a $100,000 termination fee as a result of that scheduling decision.

The two teams did play at the O2 Arena in London last season, with Kentucky defeating Michigan 73-69.

There was no specific reason for the cancellation of the two home games included in the official correspondence between the two programs. And there has been no indication from either side that there will be renewed attempts for the teams to play each other at any point in the near future.

The Wildcats’ non-conference schedule for the immediate future will feature participation in the Champions Classic, CBS Sports Classic, ACC/SEC Challenge, plus a series with Gonzaga through the 2027-28 season and the annual rivalry game with Louisville.

UK Coach John Calipari also confirmed last fall that Kentucky had reached an agreement with Indiana to renew that rivalry, beginning with the 2025-26 season.

Kentucky hosted Michigan for a game in Memorial Coliseum in 1970, and other than a pair of NCAA Tournament matchups and the contest in London last year, the two programs have not met since. The Cats’ only game on Michigan’s home court came in 1967. UK leads the all-time series 6-2.

When UK opted to cancel the game in Ann Arbor two years ago, Michigan released a statement saying the change was “due to uncertainties with scheduling” on Kentucky’s end. The statement also said that “continued discussions are being made to reschedule both home games.” Last October, Calipari tweeted that Kentucky would host Michigan as part of its 2023-24 non-conference schedule.

Kentucky is generally ranked in the 15-20 range nationally going into the 2023-24 season, while Michigan is not widely mentioned on the preseason top-25 lists. The Wolverines are coming off an 18-16 campaign in which they finished tied for fifth in the Big Ten and lost to Vanderbilt in the second round of the NIT. The Torvik ratings project them as the No. 55 team in the country for the 2023-24 season.

When Kentucky canceled its game at Michigan two years ago, the Wildcats were coming off their worst season in modern program history — a 9-16 showing amid the COVID-19 pandemic — and the Wolverines were fresh off an Elite Eight run.

Kentucky’s 2023-24 schedule will feature non-conference games in Rupp Arena against Gonzaga and Miami, neutral-court matchups with Kansas and North Carolina, and the annual rivalry meeting with Louisville, the Cats’ only true road game before league play begins.

UK will also face a particularly difficult campaign in the Southeastern Conference, featuring home games against Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Missouri, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.

The full 2023-24 schedule is expected to be finalized early next month, when the SEC announces specific dates for this season’s conference games.

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