April 12, 2001
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue and Indiana men's and women's basketball teams will play a doubleheader in the RCA Dome on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2002.
Because both men and women play conference tournaments, the regular season has been reduced from 18 games to 16 games. Purdue and Indiana square off just once in the next several years in the regular season as a result. The men drop down to one game in 2001-02 and 2002-03. The women play just once during the regular season in 2002-03 and 2003-04.
Indiana will be the host institution for both RCA Dome games, which will not count in conference won-loss records. Purdue is the home school for the single regular-season games between the men's and women's teams in the 2002-03 season.
Morgan Burke, Purdue director of intercollegiate athletics, said the opportunity to pair the men's and women's teams was too good to pass up.
"Scheduling sometimes brings about a unique and perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Burke said. "This doubleheader will be a special Christmas present from both Purdue and IU to their fans who live in or around central Indiana."
For Purdue, the doubleheader will take the place of the 2002 Boilermaker BlockBuster, the annual doubleheader that features the men's and women's squads taking on opponents from different schools.
A number of details, including starting times of the two games and ticket prices, are still to be worked out.
Seating for the Purdue-IU doubleheader will be roughly 35,000, with tickets divided equally between the two institutions. All revenue and expenses also will be evenly divided.