Kentucky moves into College Football Playoff projections after OT win over LSU

Kentucky has gone from preseason afterthought to College Football Playoff contender. After the Wildcats beat then-No. 10 LSU in overtime, several national outlets now project them into the 12-team field. That's according to a roundup by Dylan Ballard of A Sea Of Blue, published through SB Nation.

CBS Sports' Brad Crawford has Kentucky as the No. 11 seed, with a first-round game at No. 6 seed Indiana. On3's Andy Staples has the Wildcats as the No. 10 seed. ESPN's Heather Dinich puts them 12th in her projected field. Max Olson and Jake Trotter of ESPN have them at No. 10, and Paolo Uggetti has them at No. 11. Not every projection goes that far. Ballard notes that Dinich has Kentucky getting bumped by the highest-ranked Group of 6 champion if the field were set today, and only three of ESPN's 11 panelists put the Wildcats in. Athlon Sports still has Kentucky playing USC in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 31.

The change happened fast. A week earlier, after the South Carolina win, the national projections had Kentucky in the Gator, Birmingham, Music City and Liberty bowls. In the spring, CBS had the Wildcats in the Cure Bowl against East Carolina.

The win over LSU nearly slipped away. Kicker Adam Zouagui missed two field goals that would have tied the game, and LSU led 27-24 with the ball late. Kentucky's defense got the ball back, and the offense drove 63 yards in 1:25 before Zouagui made a 33-yarder with 16 seconds left to force overtime. Brock Coffman returned a punt 55 yards for a touchdown, Kentucky didn't commit a turnover, and LSU ran for 94 yards on 36 carries.

The polls reacted. Kentucky moved from unranked to No. 15 in the AP Top 25 and from No. 25 to No. 17 in the Coaches Poll. LSU fell 12 spots to No. 22. The Wildcats are 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the SEC. They have top-10 wins at Texas A&M and over LSU, and their only loss came against Alabama, now ranked No. 6. Ballard points to Dinich's note that Kentucky ranks near the top of the country in strength of record, a metric that has historically lined up with the playoff field.

The roundup also lists some milestones. Kentucky is the first FBS team to win consecutive games by one point in overtime. Will Stein is the first Kentucky coach since 1913 to start 5-1 in his first season. Preseason win totals for the Wildcats sat around 4.5, a mark they've already passed by mid-October.

Next up is a road trip to Oklahoma on Saturday, a game that will show whether the playoff talk holds up. The market doesn't have Kentucky as the favorite. Oklahoma is favored at -228 on Novig, one of the venues pricing the game, and Pinnacle has the Sooners at -262. The spread is Oklahoma -6.5 and the total is 43.5. Full pricing is on the Kentucky at Oklahoma game page.

A second straight win over a ranked SEC opponent on the road would make Kentucky hard to keep out of the projected field. A loss would put the Wildcats back among the teams on the bubble.