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The Kentucky Batcats released their 2017 schedule this week, highlighted by a season opening road trip to North Carolina and a home series against UC Santa Barbara. Those six games are in addition to their annual home-and-home with Louisville and the typical SEC gauntlet.
In all, UK will play 26 games against 17 non-conference opponents. Four of these teams - Louisville, UC Santa Barbara, Xavier, and Wright State - made the College World Series last year while UNC was one of the last teams out of the field.
Here is the list of UK’s non-conference opponents along with their 2016 Record and RPI.
| Opponent | Games | 2016 W-L | 2016 RPI | Postseason |
| North Carolina | 3 | 34—21 | 19 | |
| Liberty | 1 | 31—28 | 109 | |
| Saint Joe's | 1 | 31—23 | 135 | |
| Old Dominion | 1 | 32—24 | 80 | |
| Delaware | 1 | 31—22 | 149 | |
| EKU | 1 | 24—31 | 215 | |
| WKU | 2 | 24—30 | 132 | |
| UC Santa Barbara | 3 | 43—20—1 | 18 | NCAAT |
| Wright State | 1 | 46—17 | 42 | NCAAT |
| Cincinnati | 2 | 26—30—1 | 120 | |
| Miami (OH) | 3 | 27—29 | 164 | |
| Murray St | 1 | 25—28 | 197 | |
| Louisville | 2 | 50—14 | 2 | NCAAT |
| UT Martin | 1 | 18—34 | 263 | |
| Xavier | 1 | 32—30 | 72 | NCAAT |
| Indiana | 1 | 32—24 | 104 | |
| NKU | 1 | 20—34 | 247 |
The SEC schedule is tough as always. UK has their usual set of games against fellow Eastern division teams as well as Texas A&M, Mississippi, and Mississippi St. from the West. The road trip to Starkville is particularly notable, as it is a homecoming for Mingione and reunion with former UK head coach Gary Henderson.
All in all, it’s a good schedule. Kudos to Nick Mingione for improving the non-conference schedule and starting his inaugural season with a challenging road series.