Three quick observations: What does playing 10 SEC games mean for Kentucky?
The Southeastern Conference will play a 10-game, conference-only schedule in 2020. Other than new kickoff dates for the season and the league championship game — Sept. 26 and Dec. 19, respectively — the particulars of that decision aren’t quite known.
What does, or could, the league’s change to a conference-only schedule mean for the Kentucky football team? Let’s quickly look at it.
Bowl game?
This could be a moot point, as it’s contingent on bowl games even being played this season. With so much uncertainty, it’s possible that decisions about the postseason won’t be locked in for quite a while.
Among those decisions is the question of bowl eligibility criteria. Three major conferences — the Big Ten and Pac-12 in addition to the SEC — have announced league-only schedules and the Atlantic Coast Conference has said it will play 10 conference games with only one additional game against an out-of-league foe. Six wins is the typical standard for bowl eligibility, though teams sometimes have squeaked in with five when spots would have otherwise been left unfilled, and getting to that magic number will be difficult for every major college football team.
The SEC had 10 bowl-eligible teams last season (Missouri was banned from the postseason, however). Of that lot, only four — Alabama, Florida, Georgia and LSU — would have qualified for bowl games if their games against non-conference opponents were removed from their resumes. Only two other teams — Auburn and Tennessee — finished with winning records in the SEC (both were 5-3).
Kentucky has played in four straight bowl games. That streak could be in jeopardy, depending on how things end up.
Tougher schedule
It’s possible that the SEC could keep its current league schedule intact and simply add two additional league opponents — presumably cross-divisional teams — to each team’s schedule.
Or it could follow the lead of the ACC, which more or less blew up its 2020 league slate and started fresh. Louisville, for example, was set to host North Carolina State for its season opener; the Cardinals now aren’t even scheduled to play the Wolfpack in 2020.
One option is that the SEC could add the next two games on deck for divisional rotation to each team’s schedule. For Kentucky, that would mean adding a home date against LSU (the defending national champions) and a road trip to Mississippi, now coached by Lane Kiffin.
UK last played LSU in 2014, Mark Stoops’ second season as head coach. It lost that game 41-3, and has lost its last two contests against LSU since a 43-37 upset in 2007, and is 16-40 overall. UK under Stoops has played Mississippi just once, in 2017; it fell 37-34. Kentucky overall is 14-27 against the Rebels.
If both those teams are added to Kentucky’s schedule, the Wildcats would have a combined 2-8 record in their most recent meeting against 2020 opponents, its only wins coming against Missouri and Vanderbilt.
Stoops’ climb
If UK had won its original season opener against Eastern Michigan, Stoops’ overall record would have been above .500 for the first time in his tenure.
He’s on track to become the first Wildcats coach to leave the program with a winning record since Blanton Collier, who was 41-36-3 from 1954-1961. Stoops needs only three wins in 2020 to match Fran Curci, who won 47 games from 1973-1981, as the school’s winningest coach since Bear Bryant (60-23-5 from 1946-1953).
That march up the record books got decidedly harder on Thursday, regardless of which teams get added to the slate.
This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 5:55 PM.
