The AP Preseason Top 25 dropped earlier today, revealing the best teams in college football ahead of the upcoming 2026 season, according to AP voters. Unfortunately, your University of Kentucky Wildcats did not make the list this year as the program begins a new era under first-time head coach Will Stein. The Wildcats received zero top-25 votes despite a ton of buzz and potential brewing in Lexington.

Longtime Kentucky followers know that this is nothing new. Kentucky is unranked most years, and 2026 is no different. However, Kentucky has earned a preseason ranking a handful of times, most recently in 2022. The 2022 Wildcats were the first team ranked by the AP in the preseason in over 40 years.

Here are the five times that’s happened.

Kentucky quarterback Will Levis at UK Football Media Day 2022 (Photo via Dr. Michael Huang for KSR)

2022 (Preseason #20)

The Mark Stoops era tailed off with two losing seasons and only three SEC wins in that span. But two years before that, Stoops had Kentucky rolling and ranked No. 20 before the 2022 season. The Wildcats were fresh off a 10-win year, a Citrus Bowl victory, and a program-record four straight bowl wins, and landed in the preseason poll for the first time in 44 years and the fifth time ever. UK finished 7-6 in 2022.

1978 (Preseason #15)

Kentucky was the AP’s 15th-ranked team in the 1978 preseason poll, Fran Curci’s sixth season as head coach. The Wildcats were coming off a probation season in which Kentucky finished 10-1 with wins at LSU and Penn State, but couldn’t participate in postseason play. So, the final game of the ’77 season was a win over Tennessee in the Border Battle, earning Kentucky 419 votes in the 1978 preseason voting. Kentucky went 4-6-1 that year.

1957 (Preseason #20)

After a 6-4 year with a 4-4 SEC record in 1956, Kentucky found itself ranked 20th in the 1957 AP Preseason Poll. But the Wildcats couldn’t match expectations in Blaton Collier’s fourth season as head coach, going 3-7 with only one SEC win.

1951 (Preseason #6)

Kentucky’s highest AP ranking is when voters ranked the Wildcats at sixth in the country before the 1951 season. That was the season after Kentucky, coached by Bear Bryant, beat undefeated Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl and claimed the national championship after going 11-1. The 1951 preseason poll also marked the one and only time that Kentucky ever received a first-place vote in the AP poll. The Wildcats went 8-4 and won the Cotton Bowl.

1950 (Preseason #13)

Kentucky’s first-ever preseason ranking came at the start of the national championship season. The AP ranked Kentucky at No. 13 in 1950, then watched the Wildcats climb all the way to No. 3 with a 10-0 start. A loss in Knoxville spoiled the undefeated regular season in its final game before Kentucky upset AP No. 1 Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl.

Years receiving votes

The Wildcats have received at least a vote in 13 preseason polls:

1950 (#13)

1951 (#6)

1957 (#20)

1978 (#15)

1990

2000

2007

2017

2018

2020

2022 (#20)

2023

2024