What are your odds of winning the lottery?

Football time in the Bluegrass and the late nights at Kroger Field will soon be traded in for buzzer beaters, rivalries and the greatest tradition in the history of college basketball. Kentucky basketball is back.

Big Blue Madness occurred last weekend and with it came the unmistakable energy of BBN packing Rupp Arena and getting prepared for a season of cheering the Cats on to their 9th championship. However, being one of the best teams in the country, students can’t just purchase tickets; they will need to enter the lottery.

The lotteries happen for highly anticipated games such as with rivals Louisville and Florida. There are three lotteries throughout the season which take place in Memorial Coliseum at 9 p.m. on Oct. 30, Nov. 13 and Jan. 22. The first lottery is for Virginia Tech, Louisville, Georgia and Texas A&M. The second lottery is for the Florida, Mississippi, Vanderbilt and Tennessee games and lastly the third lottery will be for Alabama, Missouri and Ole Miss.

Before attending the lottery at Memorial Coliseum, students will receive an email to register themselves or their groups online through their “My UK Student Ticket” account. Groups can be no more than four people and one leader will make the account where other members of the group can join. After the registration window closes, groups will be randomly selected and the winners will be able to attend the lottery at Memorial Coliseum. Once arriving at the lottery, students will be given a number which will establish where they sit during the games through a drawing. Students will also receive emails when registration closes and if they won or not.

However, the best way to get tickets is to skip the lottery all together. When students download the BBN rewards app they can earn points toward skipping the lotteries and also prizes by checking in at athletic events. The top 600 users in the window for that particular lottery will be able purchase their tickets ahead of time. For example, the first lottery window is points earned from 9/23 to 10/15. If a student earned 70 points total but not within the window, they will not be able to skip the lottery but if another student earns 30 points within the lottery window, they will most likely be able to purchase their tickets early.

Rewards are based on how many points students earn for the window; therefore, there is no set amount of points for students to be in the top 600.

All of the tickets not sold during the lottery or by BBN Rewards go on sale the day after the lottery. The full lottery schedule can be found at http://ukathletics.com/documents/2017/9/21/2017_PDF_Student_Basketball_Lottery_Calendar.pdf

Try your luck at the basketball lottery and see if you can experience the electric atmosphere of Rupp Arena for yourself.