SEC slate features Calipari, Hogs visiting Wildcats

• Jeff Borzello, ESPN Personnel WriterMay 13, 2024, 04:36 PM ET

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  • Basketball recruiting insider.
  • Joined ESPN in 2014.
  • Graduate of University of Delaware.Fans won’t have

to wait long for John Calipari’s go back to Lexington, with Arkansas’road game at Kentucky highlighting the 2024-25 SEC schedule announced Monday.The two teams will face off simply as soon as next season.

It will be Calipari’s first return journey to Rupp Arena because leaving last month to take over at conference competing Arkansas following 15 seasons at Kentucky.Since getting the task, Calipari has signed three members of what was the Wildcats’No. 2-ranked recruiting class, while likewise landing 2 Kentucky transfers.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated Both Calipari and Kentucky’s Mark Pope took control of empty lineups. Kentucky will return

absolutely no players from last

season, keeping simply one hire who dedicated to the Wildcats under Calipari. Arkansas returns no players from the Eric Musselman period, and both high school senior employees followed Musselman to USC.Alabama, which reached the Final Four this previous season, will likely enter 2024-45 as the favorite in the SEC. The Crimson Tide have had success in the transfer website and restored the services of starting forward Grant Nelson. Nate Oats ‘program deals with Auburn, Kentucky and Mississippi State twice next season.Texas A&M, Auburn, Florida, Arkansas and Tennessee are all also ranked in ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25. The SEC expands to 16 groups with Oklahoma and Texas joining this summer season. Each group will face the other 15 at least as soon as next season. The three remaining conference games will include 2 irreversible home-and-home competitors and one opponent that will change each year.Dates and times will be announced at a later date. Conference play starts Jan. 4, 2025.