In a rematch of one of the most exciting games of the 2021 bowl season, Kentucky Football is headed to Nashville to take on Iowa in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl on New Year’s Eve. The Wildcats and Hawkeyes will tangle at noon ET (11 a.m. Central time in Nashville) at Nissan Stadium in a game that will be nationally televised by ABC.
With the Music City Bowl celebrating its 25th year of existence, it is fitting that the team that has made the most appearances in the postseason game, Kentucky, will be making its sixth trip to the event. All five previous UK games have been decided by eight points or less, with the Wildcats posting a 2-3 record in those hotly contested affairs.
All Kentucky football season ticket holders and eligible K Fund donors who placed a Music City Bowl request during the priority request period (Nov. 16 – Dec. 1) will receive tickets, and confirmation emails will be sent Sunday evening (Dec. 4). Tickets ordered during the priority request period will be allocated into the best seat locations in Kentucky’s official allotment and assigned in order of K Fund priority point ranking later this week.
After holding tickets to fulfill all priority requests and internal needs, tickets in Kentucky’s official allotment are sold out. Public tickets are now available directly through MusicCityBowl.com and Ticketmaster.com. Kentucky will be on the east side of Nissan Stadium. Student ticket information for the Music City Bowl will be available on Sunday evening, online at UKFootballTix.com.
The TransPerfect Music City Bowl extends Kentucky’s school-record streak of seven consecutive bowl appearances, all coming under Stoops. That is one of multiple milestones he’s achieved this year. He became the longest-termed coach in school history, 10 seasons, and his win at Florida was his 61st with the Wildcats, breaking the school record of 60 victories by Paul “Bear” Bryant. Stoops and the Cats also broke the school record for most consecutive wins against non-conference opponents, a streak that now reaches 20 games – the longest active streak in the nation – and will be on the line in the bowl game.
Part of the 20-game non-conference win streak are four straight bowl wins, defeating Penn State, 27-24, in the 2019 VRBO Citrus Bowl; Virginia Tech, 37-30, in the 2019 Belk Bowl; NC State, 23-21, in the 2020 TaxSlayer Gator Bowl; and a 20-17 come-from-behind edging of Iowa in the Vrbo Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1, 2022. The Wildcats own an all-time record of 12-9 in bowl games.