As the college basketball season inches closer, another preseason ranking has Kentucky just inside the top 25.

Evan Miyakawa, of EvanMiya.com, released his official preseason rankings for the 2026-2027 season, placing Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats at No. 18 in the country as anticipation continues to build about the season ahead.

Miyakawa runs one of college basketball’s most prominent advanced analytics sites, with his research featured by ESPN, CBS Sports, Sports Illustrated and the Associated Press. His preseason rankings are worth keeping an eye on because his model is designed to project future performance rather than to simply evaluate past results.

For Kentucky, several players stand out individually in his projections. Returning sophomore center, Malachi Moreno, ranks No. 12 in Miyakawa’s preseason player ratings, giving the Wildcats one of the highest-rated returning players in the country.

Moreno is coming off a freshman season in which he earned SEC All-Freshman honors after averaging 8.3 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game. With another year of experience under his belt, the Kentucky big man will once again be an important part of Pope’s frontcourt.

Milan Momcilovic is another major piece of Kentucky’s depth after transferring from Iowa State and arriving as one of the top additions during the offseason. The forward previously ranked as the No. 6 overall transfer in Miyakawa’s transfer portal rankings, making him one of Kentucky’s most notable additions.

Momcilovic brings another shooting threat to a Kentucky team looking to surround its talent with experienced offensive players, logging as one of the best, if not the, shooters in the country.

Kentucky will also be counting on international addition Ousmane N’Diaye, who adds even more size and depth to the Wildcats’ frontcourt. N’Diaye was also listed among top international prospects, another highly skilled newcomer to work with this season.

The combination of returning talent and offseason additions gives Kentucky a versatile roster as Pope enters his third season in Lexington. Even at No. 18 nationally, Kentucky sits at sixth among SEC teams in Miya’s rankings, highlighting how difficult the conference is expected to be again this season.

Ten SEC teams appear inside his preseason top 30, setting up another challenging year of conference play. With that being said, the Wildcats will have plenty of opportunities to rise in the rankings as the season unfolds.

In today’s world of college sports, it’s not unusual for a top-ranked high school or transfer prospect to be offered a sum of money that can span upwards of several million dollars.

Just this offseason, Kentucky transfer Milan Momcilovic is reported to have a NIL deal worth more than six million dollars with the Wildcats.

This is the current stage of college sports; the most talented players are being paid millions of dollars by programs. While people’s opinions vary, those athletes bring value to the university in terms of exposure and brand recognition.

Make no mistake, college athletes were getting paid decades ago, just not as transparently as it is today. Former athletes have gone on to infer such things.

Earlier this week, former Duke basketball star Jay Williams made a “black duffle bags” comment during a panel discussion at Front Office Sports’ Asset Class event, appearing alongside former NFL veteran Ndamukong Suh.

The panel interviewer noted, “NIL was a thing and a concept before all of this…” Williams responded, “There’s some black duffel bags…It’s alright; we all participated; he’s (Suh) going to claim that he didn’t.”

Suh then pushed back immediately: “Whoa, whoa, I never participated. I don’t know what y’all did at Duke, but don’t bring that over here to Nebraska.”

Williams comment has sparked considerable discussion across social media platforms. For years now, there’s been debate over whether programs that have effectively admitted to paying players in the pre-NIL era will ever face real consequences.

It seems unlikely that the NCAA will launch investigations into these allegations, given that the skeletons that would likely be found are now legal, and that there are even consequences that have been overturned.

For example, in 2024, Reggie Bush recently had his Heisman Trophy reinstated after it was taken away due to Bush accepting improper benefits during his playing career at USC. According to ABC News, the reversal was driven by sweeping changes in the college football landscape-most notably the arrival of NIL, which now allows college athletes to be compensated with very minimal regulations.

This raises a very debatable question: Should programs that have been found to paid players in the past face consequences, including vacated wins and stripped championships, or should the cheaters who didn’t get caught get to continue as if nothing happened?

Programs like Louisville and SMU, and even Kentucky, had to face consequences for giving improper benefits at various points, but other programs have walked free simply due to not being caught.

For years, Big Blue Madness has been one of Lexington’s hottest ticketed events in town. When the number of tickets fans could buy for the event was announced as now cut in half, the immediate social media uproar from fans was palpable.

On Monday, Sept. 14, ticket information for Big Blue Madness was released with a change that took fans by surprise – the household limit for purchasing tickets had been reduced from four to just two. In a change that blindsided fans across Big Blue Nation, many took to social media to express their disappointment with the limit on tickets.

In a quick response by Athletic Director J Batt, BBN’s pleas to reverse the new ticket limit were too loud to ignore; the two-ticket limit had been reversed and was back to the usual four.

Aside from his timely answer to the less-than-stellar response that Kentucky fans had to this change, Batt has proven that he does not take what fans have to say lightly. This joins an already growing list of measures he has taken to ensure the BBN’s voice is heard loud and clear.

“Inside the athletic department, we’re working morning, noon, and night to make sure the game day experience is excellent,” Batt said on the Paul Finebaum Show on Friday, Sept. 11.

In his short time at Kentucky, Batt has already been gaining the support of UK fans by lowering concession prices at Kroger Field, making numerous appearances at fan events and continuing to preach his desire to make Lexington the place to be on game days.

Since its inception in 1982, Big Blue Madness has always been a marquee preseason event for both students and fans alike. The commotion caused by the initial ticket changes was no surprise, proving just how hungry the fans are to get to their seats in Rupp Arena and witness the dawn of a new season.

Tickets for the treasured event are set to go on sale on Friday, Sept. 18 at 5 p.m. ET. One of college basketball’s most anticipated preseason celebrations is set a little early this year, scheduled for Friday, Oct. 2, at 7 p.m. ET.