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Could Indiana and Louisville begin a three-year series?

Chris Jones, Nick Zeisloft

AP Photo

AP

Back in December, after Louisville knocked off Indiana in the Jimmy V Classic, Louisville head coach Rick Pitino hinted that the game between the two programs would not be the last.

On Monday, on his radio show, Pitino took it a step further, saying that the schools are in the processing of discussing a three-year series.

“We are negotiating to play Indiana next year in Lucas Oil Stadium, where we split 35,000 tickets each,” Pitino said, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. “If we can’t get Lucas Oil on the date, we’ll go to (Bankers Life Fieldhouse) and split 10,500 tickets or whatever. It’ll be half going around behind our bench and half at mid-section, going around their bench.”

Tom Crean wouldn’t talk specifics, but both he and IU athletic director Fred Glass told the Indy Star that they were in talks with Louisville.

“I respect Rick a lot,” Crean said. “I would say that, if we get this series completed, a three-year series, a series of that magnitude really deserves the respect of an official announcement.”

Yeah, so that sounds awesome.

We need more non-conference games played in front of raucous environments, and there aren’t many places that will get rowdier than Louisville and Indiana playing at a neutral site somewhere in Kentuckiana.

Now, if we could only get Kentucky to play Indiana annually. We could call it the “Kentuckiana Series”. Branding. T-shirts. Coffee mugs.

But more importantly, awesome college basketball rivalry games happening before the conference season begins.

Who do I need to get on the phone with to make this happen?

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