Kentucky's 2026 schedule has been revealed with dates

Kentucky's 2026 opponents have already been revealed, which was released back in September. The Wildcats will have three permanant opponents in the SEC over the next four seasons in Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina, with the other six games featuring rotating conference opponents in Kentucky's schedule over that span. On Thursday, the actual schedule was released with dates, and it's a tough one for Kentucky.

First, let's discuss who Kentucky will be taking on next season in the conference. The Wildcats will take on road games at South Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma, and home against Florida, Alabama, LSU and Vandy. It's a tough road, and what makes it even tougher is the league is now going to a nine-game SEC schedule, adding another conference game and thus eliminating one less bye game from each team. That is not very good news for Kentucky, a team already trying to push forward after going 4-8 and 5-7 the last two seasons. But, there's new energy injected in the program with new head coach Will Stein, who looks prepared for all of the challenges this program will face.

Here is Kentucky's 2026 full schedule with dates:

Week 1 (Sept. 5): Youngstown State

Week 2 (Sept. 12): Alabama

Week 3 (Sept. 19): At Texas A&M

Week 4 (Sept. 26): South Alabama

Week 5 (Oct. 3): At South Carolina

Week 6 (Oct. 10): LSU

Week 7 (Oct. 17): At Oklahoma

Week 8 (Oct. 24): Vandy

Week 9 (Oct. 31): BYE

Week 10 (Nov. 7): At Tennessee

Week 11 (Nov. 14): Florida

Week 12 (Nov. 21): At Missouri

Week 13 (Nov. 28): Louisville

An already tough road just got even tougher, and if Kentucky really does want to take that next step, they're going to have to embrace it. No better time to have new energy in your football program if you're Kentucky. It will obviously take Stein some time to get things going, but this offseason couldn't have began any better after signing a number of impressive recruiting gets during signing day last week. Now, it's up to getting some nice pieces in the portal, because as a new coach, it's hard to retain players at a new school, no matter the circumstances. As far as staff hires go, Stein has made some impressive ones, including hiring a GM in Pat Biando from Oregon, who was previously the Director of Recruiting in Eugene, as well as an offensive coordinator from LSU, Joe Sloan, who coached former Heisman quarterback Jayden Daniels and that electric offense in 2023, and today, bringing in Texas A&M's defensive coordinator, Jay Bateman, who had the Aggies as one of the country's top defenses as they get ready for a playoff run.

Stein and Oregon are in the playoffs, too, and now he has hired even more championship-level experience. It sounds like he's really changing the culture in Lexington, and is embracing that tough SEC schedule head-on, because it's going to be a very challenging road in year one for Stein in Lexington.