Kentucky football agrees to vacate 10 wins from 2021
Kentucky has agreed to vacate all 10 football wins from 2021 after the NCAA found that 11 Wildcats players were paid for “work not performed” in the spring of that year and the next.
The NCAA on Friday announced the penalties, which also include two years of probation and a fine. The violations are considered of the Level II variety, the middle of three tiers of NCAA infractions.
Kentucky self-reported the violations in 2022, which involved work assignments at the university’s hospital. The Wildcats suspended a number of players who were still on the team at that point, including star running back Chris Rodriguez for four games and linebacker Jordan Wright, a team captain, for one.
Kentucky went 10-3 in 2021, beating Iowa in the Citrus Bowl. With 2018, it was one of just two 10-win seasons for the Wildcats since the 1970s.
The vacated wins also drop head coach Mark Stoops’ career record to 63-65, according to official NCAA records. He remains the Wildcats’ all-time leader in coaching wins, but is now just three ahead of Paul “Bear” Bryant, who went 60-23-5 in Lexington from 1946-53.