Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
UK wants early trip to Catlanta
Kentucky playing for an SEC championship in Atlanta is nothing new.
The SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament has been played in Atlanta 15 times, with the Wildcats advancing to nine championship games and winning six titles.
But Kentucky playing in Atlanta for an SEC football title?
It could finally happen. Kentucky never has played in the SEC Championship Game — held in Atlanta since 1993 — and hasn’t finished higher than a second-place tie in the East standings since the conference went to divisions in 1992.
Six times since 1992 the Wildcats have finished 0-8 in conference play, including in 2012 and 2013.
But now Kentucky — picked to finish fifth in the East in the preseason media poll — is within one victory of going to Atlanta to play for the SEC football championship.
If the No. 9 Wildcats beat No. 6 Georgia on Saturday at Kroger Field in Lexington, Ky., they’ll clinch their first East title.
“It would be another step in the right direction,” Kentucky Coach Mark Stoops said Wednesday on the SEC coaches teleconference. “That’s what we’re looking to do, is continue to make progress and grow and get better with every opportunity.”
Kentucky (7-1, 5-1 SEC) already is assured of its first winning SEC record since 1977 when the Wildcats were 6-0 but ineligible for the conference championship because of NCAA sanctions.
Stoops was in his first season at Kentucky during the Wildcats’ last winless SEC season.
“It does feel good,” he said of how far the Wildcats have come the past six seasons. “I’m proud of the people in our program, because to change that in the SEC, it’s tough.
“It’s just a relentless dayto-day fight and process to put your team in a position to be successful. You’re starting to see the culmination of a lot of work by a lot of people.”