Kentucky Wildcats Basketball: Free Big Blue Madness

I’ve been seeing a new UK-related hashtag surface on Twitter over the last few days- #FreeBigBlueMadness. Obviously the Big Blue Nation is less than thrilled that the SEC Network or ESPN isn’t showing BBM in its entirety. Supposedly, the reason being given is because they don’t own the music rights that the players come out to and can’t afford to/won’t pay it. I fortunately have tickets to the event thanks to the student lottery, so this wasn’t a huge concern for me, but apparently they are replaying the scrimmage portion later on TV. UK fans have made so much noise with this hashtag that I’ve heard they are airing the Blue/White scrimmage next week now.

Even Patty Ice is on board:

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I’m not sure that ESPN is changing their mind about this one. Aside from the money issue, this is the SEC network and as much as we like to believe that there is nothing more to life that basketball, it’s football season and the rest of the SEC does not care. Granted, I think the ratings would be better than the volleyball game set to air in that time slot, but at this point I don’t think they’ll change their programming and plans. Besides that, theres got to be equity. There are 13 other schools in this conference that do not make a big deal out of their first basketball practice because frankly, they don’t really care. I hope they free Big Blue Madness, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Another point to be made here, not everyone understands the significance of BBM. To them, it probably isn’t all that different from the Blue/White scrimmage…and aside from the show it really isn’t. They have agreed to air the Blue/White thinking that may help. B/W game isn’t sold out, so if the ratings for B/W are awful and it doesn’t sell, this probably leaves them more stumped.

Also, I’ve seen some fans Tweet that they were canceling their SEC Network subscription. I don’t think this is the way to go about things either. The SEC Network is picking up a good number of our basketball games, not to mention football, so if you want to watch them play a game, I wouldn’t cancel over a practice. I know, I know, this is unpopular opinion here, but this is reality.

In other news, there have been rumors rolling around that Drake would be in attendance of BBM. While I don’t know if this is true (I really hope so), it isn’t looking so good either. Reported by Philly.com the rapper is still stuck in the Caribbean due to a tropical storm. So while we’re creating hashtags, lets #FreeDrake as well.

Regardless if the viewers from home get to see BBM live, or if Drake makes it, just try to remember that some very important people WILL be watching live- recruits. And with 10 NBA prospects on this roster, we need them.