Year in Review: 2025 Defined by Change at Kentucky

2025 marked the final year of the first quarter of the 21st century. It wasn’t just a symbolic change in the calendar; change defined what it was like to be a Kentucky sports fan over the last year.

Not long ago, Kentucky had the longest-tenured basketball and football coach in the SEC, with the second-longest-tenured athletic director. As we prepare for 2026, Mitch Barnhart is the only one still working in Lexington.

Two First-Year Basketball Coaches

The year began with two new basketball coaches in the middle of their first seasons. Kenny Brooks revitalized a women’s basketball program that had sunk to the cellar of the SEC. With the help of All-American point guard Georgia Amoore, the Cats snapped a seven-game losing streak to Louisville while spending most of the season in the Top 25. They were No. 12 in the final AP Poll after a fourth-place finish in the challenging SEC and second-round defeat in the NCAA Tournament.

Mark Pope had already injected much-needed life into BBN after a staleness festered at the end of John Calipari‘s regime. The Cats picked up big non-conference wins before the calendar turned. The most challenging SEC in decades provided plenty of roadblocks for the first-year head coach.

It was a roller coaster ride filled with highs and lows. The Wildcats opened SEC play with a shootout win over Florida, and swept the season series with Tennessee. They also lost to Vandy, Ole Miss, and Texas as the injury bug refused to leave with Calipari. Speaking of, Calipari’s return to Rupp was the biggest blemish of the season.

Kentucky won eight games over Top 15 opponents, tying an NCAA record, but there was still one big change BBN needed to see from its basketball program. Mark Pope arrived in Lexington with zero NCAA Tournament wins. He picked up a pair to get Kentucky back in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2019.

[READ: Top Kentucky Performances of 2025]

Kentucky Fires Its Winningest Football Coach

The ball was rolling in the wrong direction for Mark Stoops. He had already surpassed Bear Bryant with more wins than any other Kentucky head coach, but pressure was mounting following a 4-8 season. How much pressure? It was hard to say because of his contract. Stoops had the most prohibitive buyout in the sport, requiring UK to pay approximately $38 million within 60 days of his termination.

The football program had an extensive roster rebuild to get back on track, but would it, could it be enough? To have a successful season against a challenging schedule, it looked like the Wildcats needed to win one of two games against Ole Miss and South Carolina. They won neither, forcing us to spend half the season discussing Stoops’ contract.

That’s about the time that redshirt freshman quarterback Cutter Boley revitalized the offense. He completed nearly 80% of his passes in a gut-wrenching overtime loss to Texas. They used that momentum to rattle off three straight wins. All the Cats needed to return to a bowl game was a win over Louisville or Vanderbilt in the final two games of the season. They lost both by a combined score of 86-17.

Many thought Kentucky had played well enough to get Stoops off the hot seat, but the embarrassing efforts over the final two games were too much to overcome. Stoops agreed to a negotiated buyout, ending his time at Kentucky after 13 years.

Within 48 hours, the Wildcats had a new coach. Will Stein, the Oregon offensive coordinator and former Louisville quarterback, agreed to take over the Kentucky football program, becoming the youngest head coach in the SEC.

More Change Awaits Away From the Field

Shortly after Stein’s introductory press, Mitch Barnhart took questions from the media. Some of those questions were about the new football coach. Others were about Kentucky’s financial support. The Athletic Director’s response to those questions was fiery, and that’s an understatement. “Enough!”

College athletics drastically changed in the summer of 2025 when the House settlement was ratified. Rather than compensating athletes through NIL collectives, schools are now required to directly share revenue with their athletes. Around $20 million will be paid directly to players from schools in the first year of the settlement.

Each school can divvy out funds as they see fit. That comes with controversy, especially at Kentucky. SEC football pays the bills, but Kentucky basketball is a brand unlike any other in the conference. Kentucky also did a few things differently to prepare for revenue-sharing. The athletics department was transformed into an LLC, Champions Blue, and they quickly signed a contract extension with broadcast partner JMI, who will serve as the school’s in-house NIL collective. Others have followed Kentucky’s lead and taken the LLC route, but almost every other program still operates independent NIL collectives.

Significant changes were made to create a new version of college athletics where athletes are compensated for their contributions. These changes were supposed to come with guardrails, but those guardrails are not legally binding. In other words, it’s still very much the Wild Wild West.

Change Needs to Bring More Kentucky Wins

So much change happened around UK Athletics in 2025. It was refreshing, but there’s a reason why it happened. Kentucky fans are starving for success.

It has been more than a decade since we’ve seen Kentucky play in the Final Four. BBN has not watched the Cats play on an SEC Tournament Saturday since 2019. Kentucky football fans endured a 10-game home losing streak to SEC foes. Plenty of change occurred, but the most important change is still required: more wins.