Best Season: Kentucky

As someone who is from a state where my school was considered a "basketball school", I can understand the frustration from those Kentucky fans who enjoy football more than basketball. However, the Wildcats are not without their memories.

What do Kentucky and Maryland have in common? They were the schools that Bear Bryant coached at before reaching Alabama! In 1950, Bear Bryant led the Wildcats to their only national title in school history, which was awarded after the fact. Back in 1950, the awards were given before the actual bowl games, which had very obvious flaws. This was the case as Kentucky would have ended as the best team if everything was played out to the fullest.

Kentucky started the 1950 season ranked number 13 in the country. The Wildcats were certainly thinking that this year could be big, as they started in the top 15 and had a fairly light schedule. Kentucky had an incredible start to the year, as they started with 4 straight shut-outs. They then won the next two, 41-7 and 34-7, to move to #4 and 6-0 on the year before the bulk of their conference schedule. The margin of victory was cut down, but the wins kept coming as they reached 9-0 on the year and 5-0 in the conference, which meant that they had won the SEC with 2 regular season games left.

The final two games were one non-conference match against North Dakota and one more SEC game against Tennessee. North Dakota had the field stained with their blood as they were destroyed 83-0 by the #5 Wildcats. Kentucky then moved up to #3 and had to head to #9 Tennessee to finish the season unbeaten. The game was a low-scoring defensive battle, which ultimately led to Tennessee winning 7-0. This meant that Kentucky was now 10-1, SEC champs and they were headed to the Sugar Bowl.

Their opponent in the Sugar Bowl? The number 1 ranked Oklahoma Sooners. The Sooners were 32-0 in their last 32 games, and they had just won their 5th straight conference championship. The Wildcats were #7 and were considered to be the underdog for this huge matchup. Over 80,000 people came to see Kentucky versus Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl, and they received a great matchup. The Sooners were surprised to see the fight in the Wildcats, who ultimately came away with the win 13-7.

The Wildcats did have a few people rank them #1 after this momentous win, but not as much as they deserved. Multiple people claimed the title this year, and Oklahoma was named to have the title during the season. However, Kentucky was awarded the championship after computer rankings were released in 1990, which I believe to be the right call. The Wildcats were in the top of the rankings all year, and lost a game by one touchdown to a rival. They followed this up by beating the number 1 team. The 1950s team did not get recognized when they won the game in 1950, but we can see now that they are the best team in school history.