Kentucky Wildcats vs Alabama Crimson Tide will be in primetime on ESPN

The Kentucky Wildcats will face the Alabama Crimson Tide in front of a national audience in Week 5.

The SEC announced Monday that UK and Bama will kick off at 7 p.m. EST on ESPN, a rather shocking move to say the least. While the Crimson Tide are the nation’s No. 1 team, these night slots on ESPN, ABC and other networks are typically reserved for heavyweight matchups.

I guess Kentucky Basketball vs Alabama Football works, or maybe ESPN just likes seeing UK get killed in front of the whole world. The Tide look as dominant as ever and will be right back in the College Football Playoff mix come season’s end.

You’d like to think UK getting a night slot on ESPN would be a great thing...but it’s not. It’s really bad. Hopefully, UK is at least 2-2 in this game and coming off a two-game winning streak with some momentum and improved confidence. They’ll need it.

SEC Football Television Schedule for Saturday, October 1, 2016:

DATE	TIME (ET)	GAME	NETWORK
Sat., Oct. 1	12:00 p.m.	Florida at Vanderbilt	SEC Network
Sat., Oct. 1	12:00 p.m.	Alcorn St. at Arkansas (Little Rock)	SEC Network Alternate
Sat., Oct. 1	3:30 p.m.	Tennessee at Georgia	CBS
Sat., Oct. 1	3:30 p.m.	Louisiana Monroe at Auburn	SEC Network Alternate
Sat., Oct. 1	4:00 p.m.	Texas A&M at South Carolina	SEC Network
Sat., Oct. 1	7:00 p.m.	Kentucky at Alabama	ESPN
Sat., Oct. 1*	7:00 p.m.	Memphis at Ole Miss	SEC Network Alternate or ESPNU or ESPN2
Sat., Oct. 1	7:30 p.m.	Missouri at LSU	SEC Network

*Network to be determined on Sept. 29