Kentucky Football breaks into AP Poll with No. 16 national ranking

And there it is. After the AP Poll failed to believe in Kentucky through the first four games of the season, the Wildcats have finally broken through. UK’s monster upset win over Florida on Saturday night officially has the ‘Cats in the national discussion.

Not long after the Coaches Poll bumped Kentucky up from No. 23 to No. 14, the AP Poll came in and gave the 5-0 program a No. 16 ranking. In last week’s AP Poll, UK was only receiving 26 votes, which was good enough for 31st in the country. A 15-spot move doesn’t come by accident.

Kentucky ranked #16 in the new Top 25 poll

— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) October 3, 2021

Much like the Coaches Poll, Alabama and Georgia are the top two teams in the country, respectively. However, Kentucky finds itself as the fourth-highest SEC program in the AP behind No. 13 Arkansas (the Coaches Poll has Kentucky as the third-highest SEC team).

Ole Miss (No. 17), Auburn (No. 18), and Florida (No. 20) make up the rest of the intraconference teams in the top 25. Texas A&M and Mississippi State are both receiving votes with 41 and 18, respectively.

And now how’s this for a sentence: No. 16 Kentucky (5-0) will host unranked LSU (3-2) at Kroger Field next Saturday. If we’re talking basketball, that’s nothing strange. But in football? It might as well be an April’s Fools joke.

AP Top 25 Week 6

1. Alabama
2. Georgia
3. Iowa
4. Penn State
5. Cincinnati
6. Oklahoma
7. Ohio State
8. Oregon
9. Michigan
10. Brigham Young
11. Michigan State
12. Oklahoma State
13. Arkansas
14. Notre Dame
15. Coastal Carolina
16. Kentucky
17. Ole Miss
18. Auburn
19. Wake Forest
20. Florida
21. Texas
22. Arizona State
23. North Carolina State
24. SMU
25. San Diego State

Others receiving votes: Clemson 96, Texas A&M 41, Oregon State 27, Baylor 24, Mississippi State 18, Virginia Tech 13, Stanford 11, UTSA 10, Pittsburgh 6, Fresno State 5, Texas Tech 4, Western Michigan 3, Appalachian State 2, Kansas State 2, Boston College 1, UCLA 1