The Southeastern Conference continues to shine as the nation’s premier baseball conference in 2025.

Nine of the top 25 teams featured in D1Baseball’s Preseason Top 25 Rankings hail from the SEC, including No. 1 Texas A&M, No. 3 LSU, No. 4 Tennessee, No. 5 Arkansas, No. 8 Georgia, No. 10 Florida, No. 16 Vanderbilt, No. 18 Mississippi State, and No. 19 Texas. Kentucky will face six of these nine teams in conference play this season.

Along with the nine teams ranked, other teams who were left out will likely be ranked at some point this season, including Alabama, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. Winning the conference or notching a top-four seed in the SEC Tournament will be an extremely hard challenge this season, especially with the inclusion of two more teams.

March 14-16: @ No. 8 Georgia

The Cats open SEC play in Athens, Ga. on March 14 at No. 8 Georgia. The Bulldogs, who were led by the No. 3 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft Charlie Condon, were swept by Kentucky last season in Lexington. That series served as Nick Mingione’s team’s coming out party, as the Cats outscored then No. 25 ranked Georgia 37-15 over the three game span.

This series will feature even more juice this season, as Kentucky will be facing former Cat Nolan McCarthy, who transferred to Georgia over the offseason. McCarthy spent three seasons at Kentucky (2021-2024), hitting for a .279 AVG with 13 home runs and RBI.

March 28-30: @ No. 1 Texas A&M

Following a home series against Auburn and two non-conference matchups against Murray State and Xavier, Kentucky heads to preseason No. 1 Texas A&M on March 28. These teams did not face off in the regular season in 2024, but they did meet in the Men’s College World Series. Kentucky fell to A&M 5-1, giving the Cats their first loss in the event.

April 11-13: vs. No. 19 Texas

Kentucky gets its first home series against a preseason top-25 team on April 11 when the No. 19 ranked Texas Longhorns travel to Lexington. The 2025 season will serve as the first in the conference for new head coach Jim Schlossnagle’s Longhorns. Texas is most recently known around the Kentucky program as the college Mitchell Daly transferred from before hitting the biggest home run in Wildcat baseball history.

April 18-20: @ No. 4 Tennessee

Although Tennessee lost some major stars from its 2024 Men’s College World Series winning team, Tony Vitelli’s Volunteers will open the 2025 season ranked at No. 4. Kentucky hosted Tennessee at Kentucky Proud Park in 2024 and lost the series two games to one. In 10 SEC series last season, it was just one of Kentucky’s two losses (Tennessee & South Carolina).

May 2-4: @ No. 18 Mississippi State

The road hits keep on coming as Kentucky travels to No. 18 Mississippi State on May 2 for a road series at Dudy Noble. The Bulldogs were the lone SEC team that did not encounter Kentucky last season.

May 15-17: @ No. 16 Vanderbilt

Finally, Kentucky closes out the regular season on the road in Nashville at No. 16 Vanderbilt. The Cats won the series over the Commodores in 2024, securing a share of just their second ever SEC Regular Season Championship in the process. It was Kentucky’s first series win over Vanderbilt since 2017.

Five of Kentucky’s six series against ranked teams are away from Kentucky Proud Park, where the Cats are 53-13 since the beginning of the 2023 season. Since the beginning of the 2023 season, Kentucky is 27-18 in games on the road.

Are new uniforms on the way for the Kentucky Wildcats? Mark Pope hinted at some special edition threads potentially set to debut this season.

The UK head coach was asked about any pregame superstitions he has ahead of tip-off, using that moment to slide in a nugget on a ‘little fashion show’ the team participated in on Monday.

“They have weaned me off of my superstitions, even to the point of — we had a little fashion show today of some prospective uniforms that we might break out this season,” Pope said during his call-in radio show. “(UK equipment manager) Mark Evans brought them in with a ton of sensitivity about, ‘Hey, I don’t want to jinx anything.’ I’m like, ‘I don’t believe in that, I’m not into any of that.’ So I don’t really have any game day superstitions.”

It comes just a couple of weeks after Pope was asked if he could bring back the denim uniforms his 1996 national championship team made famous three decades ago. His response at the time?

“Can I tell you this? I’m not really allowed to say this, so it’s just between the two of us: I’m working on it,” he said. “It’s amazing the red tape that we have to go through to make this happen, but we’re pretty passionate about trying to make that happen. We’ll see what we come up with. It’s definitely on my agenda of things to get accomplished.”

Pope said back in April that ‘we should put it in the hands of BBN’ when it comes to uniforms, saying he’d like to see fans vote on what the team wore at some point in the future.

“I would dig that. That would be awesome.”

Does that include denim?

“The denim, you know, I don’t know,” Pope continued. “I love the denim uniforms.”

We’re seeing a trend here, folks. Prepare accordingly.

It was a roller-coaster week for Kentucky in the NET Rankings. After losing at Georgia, the Cats fell to No. 18. After beating Mississippi State in Starkville, they’re back up to No. 13, just one spot lower than last Monday.

Every Monday until Selection Sunday, we’ll be looking at Kentucky’s team sheet, which the Selection Committee will use as it determines the Cats’ seed in the NCAA Tournament. Both of last week’s games were in Quad 1 (Quad 1A, to be exact), bringing Kentucky’s Quad 1 record to 4-3. This week, the Cats could make it 6-3, as the Texas A&M and Alabama games are two of 11 Quad 1 games remaining on the schedule. Eight of those eleven are in Quad 1A, considered the best of the best when it comes to NCAA Tournament resumes.

Let’s break it all down.

• Quad 1: 4-3 (Games Remaining: 11)
  • Quad 1A: 4-2
  • Quad 1B: 0-1
• Quad 2: 1-0 (Games Remaining: 3)
• Quad 3: 2-0 (Games Remaining: 1)
• Quad 4: 6-0 (Games Remaining: 0)

Quad 1: 4-3

• Quad 1: Home: 1-30 | Neutral: 1-50 | Away: 1-75
  • *Quad 1A: Home 1-15 | Neutral 1-25 | Away 1-40
  • Quad 1B: Home 16-30 | Neutral 26-50 | Away 41-75

Quad 2: 1-0

Home: 31-75 | Neutral: 51-100 | Away: 76-135

Quad 3: 2-0

Home: 76-160 | Neutral: 101-200 | Away: 136-240

Quad 4: 6-0

Home: 161-362 | Neutral: 201-362 | Away: 241-362

Team Sheet Notes

— Kentucky is 4-3 in Quad 1. Only four teams in college basketball have more than four Quad 1 wins so far: Auburn (7), Oregon (7), Duke (5), and Marquette (5). Unfortunately, all four of those teams also have fewer than three Quad 1 losses. Houston is the only team in the top ten of the NET (No. 3) with zero Quad 1 wins.

— Speaking of Auburn, the Tigers have a whopping 13 Quad 1 games remaining. Add in the eight they’ve played so far and that’s 21 Quad 1 games, the most in the conference. Alabama’s next with 19, then Kentucky and Ole Miss with 18.

— Not a ton of team sheet movement since last Monday in terms of quads. Lipscomb fell from No. 70 to No. 86 in the NET, which moved the win over the Bisons from Quad 2 to Quad 3. Louisville is climbing the NET, now up to No. 35. If the Cards move into the Top 30, Kentucky’s win over them will move from Quad 2 to Quad 1.

Within Quad 1, Georgia is up ten spots to No. 26 after wins over Kentucky and Oklahoma. After losing to Mississippi State and Missouri, Vanderbilt is down 11 spots to No. 42, which puts Kentucky’s trip to Nashville on Jan. 25 right on the cusp of Quad 1A/Quad 1B.

The Road Ahead

It’s another Quad 1 week for Kentucky. Tomorrow’s game vs. Texas A&M is in Quad 1B but could move up to Quad 1A if the Aggies move up just two spots in the NET. Alabama is No. 7 in the NET, keeping this game firmly in Quad 1A. These two teams just played each other on Saturday, with Alabama leaving College State with a 94-88 win over the Aggies.

Hold serve at home and Kentucky will have two huge wins on its resume. Fingers crossed.