Not one. Not two. Not three. But four.
Bill Connelly placed the Kentucky Wildcats in the fourth tier of his College Football Playoff breakdown. The ESPN columnist has just one team in his top tier, the undefeated Miami Hurricanes, and there's no doubt they've been the best team in college football to this point in the season.
Past that is where it starts to get a bit confusing. Connelly has Indiana and Notre Dame in his second tier and Wake Forest in his third tier. The Hoosiers, who arguably should've lost on Saturday, and Wake Forest, which hasn't played a difficult schedule so far outside of a home loss to Miami, both being ahead of the Wildcats is a bit perplexing.
You can read the entire breakdown here.
In Kentucky's tier is Texas Tech, BYU,
Alabama, Texas, LSU, and Ole Miss. The Cats have the lowest playoff odds of any team in the tier at just 35.5%. However, of the four paragraphs, one was entirely devoted to Kentucky.
"Kentucky likely has an extra mulligan thanks to its 7-1 record and strong schedule strength, but SP+ has not been in love with the Wildcats -- they're 88th in points allowed per drive, they're 3-0 in one-score finishes, and their one loss was by 28 points to Alabama -- and gives them only a 20% chance of getting to even 10-2," Connelly wrote.
That said, the AP Poll disagrees with Connelly, and it has the Cats ahead of teams like Ohio State and Wake Forest. Nonetheless, fans will continue to learn quite a bit about Will Stein's squad as they face the No. 16 Tennessee Volunteers this upcoming weekend.
Week 10 AP Poll
— Josh Pate (@JoshPateCFB) November 1, 2026
Most overrated & underrated? pic.twitter.com/sFFIn89xQY
The Cats have Tennessee, Florida, Missouri and Lousville to round out the season, and as Connelly noted, they can likely lose one of those and still be in. Kentucky is in control of its own destiny, and any fan should be thrilled with where this program sits heading into Week 10.
This article originally appeared on UK Wildcats Wire: Kentucky Wildcats given head-scratching CFP tier by ESPN
