How would end of eight-year bowl streak affect Mark Stoops, Kentucky football program?

Since Kentucky football lost to Auburn on Oct. 26, this has been the week circled on the calendar for when the Wildcats’ eight-year bowl streak would officially come to an end.

To keep that streak alive, Kentucky must win at No. 3 Texas on Saturday and against Louisville in the regular season finale at Kroger Field next week. Mark Stoops and his players can at least point to the fact that this team has played its best against its best competition, including a road upset of then No. 6-ranked Ole Miss in September, as hope to keep the bowl streak alive, but Texas is a 20.5-point favorite.

So if Kentucky does lose in Austin this week as expected, what exactly will the end of the bowl streak mean for the program?

That answer is harder to quantify than it might have been even a few years ago.

“I took pride in that, and it’s not as easy as people think,” UK coach Mark Stoops said when recently asked about the importance of extending the streak. “Just look at the number of people that have done it.”

Pride is certainly the clearest thing at stake this week.

Kentucky entered the season tied for the 10th longest active bowl streak. Stoops has frequently cited a slightly altered version of that statistic as evidence of Kentucky’s worthiness of respect even as the team failed to meet preseason expectations in three straight seasons.

Two of the teams ranked ahead of Kentucky (Memphis and Iowa) received a bowl bid in at least nine consecutive seasons but did not actually play in one due to COVID-19 cancellations during that span. Another, Oklahoma State, has already seen its 18-year bowl streak snapped this season after its seventh loss. Only Georgia and Alabama have streaks as long while playing in the SEC.

But there is also a substantial gap between Kentucky’s streak and most of the teams ahead of it.

The top five streaks are all at least 19 years: Georgia (27), Oklahoma (25), Wisconsin (22), Alabama (20) and Clemson (19). No one would compare Kentucky with those programs’ historic success.

In its first year in the SEC, Oklahoma’s 25-year streak is at jeopardy too with the Sooners needing to upset Alabama or LSU in the final two games to go bowling. Oklahoma’s struggles this year seemingly add credence to the impressiveness of Stoops’ achievement at Kentucky.

Yes, the bowl streak was extended in 2020 despite a losing record when the NCAA made all teams bowl eligible due to the pandemic, but that losing record resulted from the SEC’s move to a conference-only schedule. It is almost certain Kentucky would have recorded at least six wins if it had played its previously scheduled nonconference slate that year.

“It definitely does mean something to me, because like for as long as I’ve been around — the past years, me being in high school, me being here — just seeing Kentucky go to a bowl game, like that’s just something like it just happens,” junior wide receiver Dane Key said. “Everybody just knows Kentucky is going to go to a bowl game. So we gotta step some things up and make it happen.”

Beyond bragging rights, bowl games provide a nice reward to players and coaches for a year of hard work. The common narrative has been that the extra few weeks of practice also provide key developmental time for young players, but the introduction of the transfer portal and a hectic December schedule for coaches have decreased that utility in recent years.

Between players leaving via the portal after the end of the regular season and a rash of NFL draft prospects opting out of bowl games, the version of teams that show up to their postseason destination frequently looks little like the one that played in the regular season. Certainly few around the Kentucky program would point to the 2022 Music City Bowl, a 21-0 shutout loss to Iowa, as significantly beneficial to the program.

That game saw Kentucky start redshirting freshman Destin Wade at quarterback after Will Levis opted out to begin rehabbing a multitude of injuries before the draft, but rather than serving as a launching point for Wade it offered significant evidence he was still years away from being ready to play quarterback for Kentucky. A year later, Wade entered the transfer portal as Kentucky coaches made it clear they would be looking to sign another transfer quarterback to play ahead of him.

“It’s a hard question, to say that,” Stoops said last week when asked if bowls were no longer as important for player development. “... It is maybe (important) to certain players. But to the overall, to the big picture, things change quickly.”

Even if Kentucky shocks Texas and wins a sixth straight over archrival Louisville to reach a bowl, the coaching staff will spend much of December recruiting transfer portal additions to fill key roles on the 2025 roster. The December schedule for coaches is at least eased somewhat this year by moving high school signing day to the first Wednesday of the month, but coaches cannot afford to wait to see what players might make strides during pre-bowl practice to decide on portal needs.

Struggles to date also mean even in the scenario the Wildcats did reach six wins, they would almost certainly fall out of the SEC’s mid-tier bowls to either the Birmingham or Gasparilla bowl. There is even a scenario where Kentucky would be left out of an SEC bowl entirely if Arkansas (5-5), Florida (5-5), Oklahoma (5-5) and UK (4-6) all reach six wins. There almost certainly would be a bowl contracted to another league that didn’t have enough bowl-eligible teams willing to take Kentucky in that unlikely scenario, but it is doubtful that bowl would be one that brought much excitement for fans.

Playing in any of those bowls is unlikely to change the perception of Kentucky’s season, but closing with wins over Texas and Louisville might on its own.

That would make the 2024 Wildcats just the fourth team in program history to beat two top-10 teams in the same season. It would send a strong statement about their continued dominance in the program’s biggest rivalry despite Louisville spending much of the last two years ranked in the top 25.

That momentum might make it easier for Stoops and his staff to raise the NIL funds to bankroll the wave of transfers that will be needed to boost a roster that will be hit heavily by graduation and NFL draft entries regardless of the outcome of the next two games. Any further increase to fan apathy that might result from the end of the bowl streak could be the biggest issue in the event of a loss to Texas.

Stoops has voiced optimism that a down season might lead to more donations in an effort to get things fixed quickly as has happened at other SEC schools, but that is a dangerous proposition for a coach who has made no secret of the uphill battle he has faced to compete with SEC powerhouses in the NIL era.

“I think building your culture, developing your culture, who you are and defining that, we have to do that,” Stoops said. “We talked about that, expediting that process and everything else, but let’s be honest, you get the best players you can.

“Money helps.”

Saturday

Kentucky at No. 3 Texas

When: 3:30 p.m. EST

TV: ABC

Records: Kentucky 4-6 (1-6 SEC); Texas 9-1 (5-1 SEC)

Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1

Series: Texas leads 1-0

Last meeting: Texas won 7-6 on Sept. 22, 1951, in Austin, Texas

This story was originally published November 20, 2024 at 6:50 AM.

Jon Hale

Lexington Herald-Leader

(859) 414-6776

Jon Hale is the University of Kentucky football beat writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He joined the Herald-Leader in 2022 but has covered UK athletics for more than 10 years. Hale was named the 2021 Kentucky Sportswriter of the Year. Support my work with a digital subscription