Here’s why the Kentucky basketball Blue-White scrimmage won’t be on TV on Friday night

The rapidly changing landscape of college athletics will be on full display Friday night in Memorial Coliseum, which will be home to an entirely different UK basketball experience.

The Wildcats’ annual Blue-White scrimmage — traditionally the final intrasquad showcase before outside competition begins — returns this year as the Blue-White Preseason Event , and it will bring major changes for UK fans.

One noticeable difference from recent years: This edition of the Blue-White scrimmage won’t be on television, a decision that’s sure to rankle some fans who are hoping to get as many looks as possible at the Cats ahead of a new era of UK basketball.

The reasoning behind the decision to keep the event off TV is an example of the balancing act college athletics departments are currently facing: how to please fans while also making sure its players are taken care of financially, both of which are obviously keys to long-term success.

The Blue-White Preseason Event is being managed by Club Blue , the UK Athletics-affiliated NIL group. The showcase will be utilized as an NIL fundraiser that will feature both the men’s and women’s basketball teams, and tickets have been priced with that in mind.

Seats for the men’s basketball Blue-White scrimmage last year ranged from $10 to $25. For Friday night’s event, the non-member ticket prices range from $125 — the lowest-priced seat — to $1,550 for the “courtside” experience, with several options in between. Club Blue members receive a 20% discount, and tickets can be purchased at ClubBlueNIL.com .

Organizers are promising something entirely different than past editions of the Blue-White scrimmage.

Club Blue co-founder Stephen Horn told the Herald-Leader this event would be a “completely different experience” for attendees, with “much more interactive and engaging” opportunities between the team and fans.

Horn mentioned the opportunity to win prizes and participate in on-the-court activities. He said there will be more than 500 giveaways at the event, opportunities for meet-and-greets with the players, and experiences such as “coach for a quarter” and “ball boy for a quarter.”

Based on ticket sales, Horn said attendance is “hopefully on track” to be around 3,000 by the time it tips off at 6 p.m. Friday. The newly renovated Memorial Coliseum lists a seating capacity of about 6,250 .

This will be the final chance for fans to see Mark Pope’s men’s team and Kenny Brooks’ women’s squad before the exhibition portion of the season begins next week.

Both teams were featured at Big Blue Madness, which was on SEC Network last Friday night in Rupp Arena, and both were ranked in the Associated Press preseason Top 25 polls — the women at No. 22 and the men at No. 23 — when they were released earlier in the week.

Fans of both teams are eagerly anticipating the start of the season as the Pope and Brooks eras begin. Both teams were built almost entirely through the transfer portal, highlighting the need — especially on the men’s side — to stay competitive in NIL fundraising as current rosters are maintained and future teams are constructed.

With that in mind, the Blue-White Preseason Event will be an experiment of sorts.

“We are using the game this year to test the market and appetite for paying a premium price for a premium experience to benefit NIL,” Horn said. “In the current landscape, we need to get creative and think outside the box on ways to raise money for NIL. We can’t sit back and rely on a handful of mega donors to support it. That won’t work in Lexington.

“People ask all the time, ‘What can I do to help NIL?’ Buying a ticket to an event like this is a way to help, but you’re also getting a premium experience in exchange.”

The hope is that fans will walk out of Memorial Coliseum on Friday night satisfied, and that as much as possible can be raised to help with the ongoing needs of UK basketball.

While putting the event on TV would give fans a chance to see Pope’s Wildcats on the court in competitive situations before the exhibition opener against Kentucky Wesleyan on Wednesday night, doing so would probably limit the number of fans who would actually show up in person and contribute to the NIL pool for players.

That’s been a difficult tightrope to walk for organizers as they navigate this relatively new NIL landscape.

“Televising the event takes away the exclusivity and does not incentivize attending,” Horn said. “We were intentional in our discussions with UK that Big Blue Madness was accessible to everyone and televised, so the common fan was not blocked from seeing the teams. This event is a fundraiser for NIL.

“All that said, we are taking all feedback into consideration and will see how successful this new event is. We are obviously open to pivoting based on what we think is going to work best. The other option was to sell tickets cheap and try to raise money from everyone once they are in the building. There’s no guarantee that would work, and that could rub people the wrong way, as well. It’s just a complicated dynamic trying to maximize fundraising while also giving fans what they want.”

The five biggest UK basketball questions going into the first season of the Mark Pope era

UK basketball had gone stale. How Mark Pope and Kenny Brooks have given fans new hope.

How good will this Kentucky men’s basketball team be? That’s an unknowable.

John Calipari refuses to talk about his UK exit, looks ahead to his Arkansas ‘adventure’

SEC basketball coaches expect big things from Mark Pope. ‘A brilliant offensive mind.’

The SEC preseason predictions are here, and the experts like Arkansas more than Kentucky

AP voters include Mark Pope’s first UK basketball team in preseason Top 25 rankings

Rick Pitino returns to Rupp Arena for Big Blue Madness. ‘I am so happy to be back.’