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Kentucky football will face top-10 schedule in 2025

Adam Luckettby:Adam Luckett07/05/25

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Kentucky cheerleaders perform at Kroger Field - Photo by Dr. Michael Huang | Kentucky Sports Radio

Kentucky is looking for a bounce-back campaign in 2025. The Wildcats are fresh off a highly disappointing 4-8 season and will be looking to flip the script with a roster that was built with heavy transfer portal volume. They will have to do that against one of the toughest schedules in college football.

According to Phil Steele’s College Football Preview magazine, Kentucky will play the ninth toughest schedule in college football.

  1. Wisconsin
  2. Mississippi State
  3. Arkansas
  4. South Carolina
  5. Syracuse
  6. LSU
  7. Oklahoma
  8. UCLA
  9. Kentucky
  10. Stanford

The Wildcats will face six teams in the top 25 of Phil Steele’s preseason power rankings: Texas (3), Georgia (7), Florida (10), Tennessee (20), Ole Miss (22), and Auburn (24). South Carolina (27) and Louisville (29) are just outside of the top 25. Kentucky sits at No. 50 overall.

This brutal slate occurs just one year after Kentucky played the eighth toughest schedule, according to Steele. For the Cats to overachieve expectations this fall, they are going to have to beat some good teams.

Kentucky’s 2026 schedule

DateOpponentStadium
Aug. 30ToledoKroger Field
Sept. 6Ole MissKroger Field
Sept. 13Eastern MichiganKroger Field
Sept. 27South CarolinaWilliams-Brice Stadium
Oct. 4GeorgiaSanford Stadium
Oct. 18TexasKroger Field
Oct. 25TennesseeKroger Field
Nov. 1AuburnJordan-Hare Stadium
Nov. 8FloridaKroger Field
Nov. 15Tennessee TechKroger Field
Nov. 22VanderbiltFirstBank Stadium
Nov. 29LouisvilleL&N Federal Credit Union Stadium

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2025-07-12