Why the UK-U of L basketball rivalry game is on ESPN2

The Kentucky-Louisville basketball rivalry is one of the best and fiercest in college sports.

On Monday, the date for the next meeting between the nemeses was announced, and there was some head-scratching among fans who didn't quite see how a game only rivaled by Duke-North Carolina could be placed on ESPN2, and not ESPN. They'd grown accustomed to CBS broadcasting the showdown in a primo afternoon slot.

Here's the explanation:

Louisville will be in the ACC starting July 1. The ACC owns the broadcasting contract for Louisville's games. And the ACC has a rather lucrative deal with ESPN.

Therefore, the ACC had controlling rights for the Dec. 27 matchup between Louisville and UK, which will be played at the KFC Yum! Center. And, in having that control, ESPN programmed the game for ESPN2 because of college football bowl-game obligations on ESPN.

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The Pinstripe and Holiday bowls are on the same day as the UK-U of L game.

To some, like our columnist Adam Himmelsbach, the placement of UK-U of L on ESPN2 was surprising. I even saw a few Twitter reactions imply that the ESPN2 programming was insulting.

But to ESPN (and U of L), ESPN2 and ESPN are synonymous. ESPN is offered in tandem with ESPN2 on cable packages, making it hard for anyone who has ESPN to not see ESPN2, the channel of choice for the College World Series, which beat the World Cup on ESPN for ratings in Louisville.

"There is no difference in the distribution or quality of production between ESPN and ESPN2," said an ESPN spokesman.

Follow Louisville beat writer Jeff Greer on Twitter (@jeffgreer_cj).