The 2025 season has concluded for the SEC with the third straight season where the conference has been shut out of the national title game— not something that is exactly fun for fans in the footprint, but something that is reflective of how the talent in a post-Saban world has begun to diffuse across the nation.
It was an exciting year in the conference, though— expectations were subverted, massive upsets were pulled, and, in the final analysis, it wasn't even the top two teams who met in Atlanta for a chance at the championship.
How could that be possible? Let's dive in and take a look at how the power rankings for the conference shook out.
Final 2025 SEC power rankings: 16 - Kentucky
The Wildcats finally finished their stumble through one last season of Mark Stoops in Lexington, and despite some hopes late in the year that they could get to .500, that didn’t come to fruition. There were some good moments for the Wildcats, but it wasn’t enough over the course of the season.
By far the highlight had to be knocking off Auburn in Jordan-Hare in a 10-3 snoozer of a game. This was the death knell for Hugh Freeze’s tenure on the Plains, but regardless of how bad the Tigers were this year, wins like that have not exactly come often for the Wildcats.
That buoyed UK to thinking they could manage six wins, but emphatic losses to Vanderbilt and Louisville killed that dream. You could see those coming, of course— what really cost UK was the high-turnover loss to South Carolina early in the season.
With Will Stein, I think the arrow for the Wildcats is certainly pointed upwards. They’ve had some big portal pickups already, which has to be encouraging. But if we’re calling balls and strikes, the final season of the Mark Stoops era has to be given a failing grade.