[Cactus Jack]

Kentucky means just as much now as it ever has.

Put it like this-- Florida is on a pretty impressive streak of national championships, with three in the last 20 seasons. Kentucky has one in that same period. Even at a pretty unsustainable rate of 3 nattys every two decades to Kentucky's 1, the 'Cats would still lead 10 to 9 in the year 2065 and it'd only be 12 to 10 in the year 2085.

Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas have withstood the test of time throughout this generation. Duke and UConn have also excelled in the past 30-35 years. Villanova and now Florida have had nice runs over the past 20 years.

Past that, there have been good years for otherwise steady teams like Michigan State, UCLA, Louisville, and a roller coaster for almost everyone else.

The only other teams to win multiple national championships are Indiana, North Carolina State, Cincinnati, and San Francisco. Those 'chips were from long enough ago that they don't seem to be extremely relevant today, even though Indiana does have 5 total.


There's plenty more (all time wins, win percentage, conference championships, attendance records, etc.) that make it one of the best histories and traditions in the sport.

A victory over a Kentucky team that was ranked anywhere from third to seventh for most of conference play still seems to mean a lot to teams, even when compared to a win over a higher ranked Auburn or Alabama.

Things could change, but it's going to take a really long time and a lot of other things going right for any one SEC program to catch up.


This year's chalk Final Four seemed to be pretty indicative of the top schools being able to get the best talent through NIL and the transfer portal.