The first projections for the 2021 college football season are here and the analytics are once again not big fans of Mark Stoops’ team. The Kentucky football team is ranked No. 57 out of 130 FBS teams in ESPN’s SP+ rankings.
The SP+ ratings were created by Bill Connelly at Football Outsiders in 2008. They’ve been slightly adjusted over time but at its core the rankings are based on three factors: returning production, recent recruiting and recent history. You can find a full explanation of how the tempo-based analytics work here.
It’s easy to understand why the system is not a big fan of the Wildcats.