UK football notebook: Cats have their bowling shoes on

The University of Kentucky football team should know its bowl destination sometime late Sunday afternoon or early evening. But in all honesty, the only thing left is the official announcement. The Cats are widely speculated to be headed to the BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham on Jan. 8 to face a Big East team, likely South Florida or Pittsburgh.

UK returned to the practice field Saturday for the first time since the regular season-ending loss to Tennessee. The Cats will practice again Sunday, with the coaches going out on the road Monday. Kentucky will practice on Saturdays and Sundays throughout December until time for bowl game preparations.

"We're taking these practices like it's official bowl practices and do what we usually do, which is try to use them to help with player development," Coach Joker Phillips said.

About the only scenario that could leave the Cats out of a bowl is if somehow the SEC doesn't get two teams into the BCS. But even if all of the SEC non-BCS bowl slots get filled up, UK will still likely find a home. There are enough non-SEC bowls looking to fill slots because of their conference affiliation not having enough bowl-eligible teams that the Wildcats would get picked up by somebody.

Phillips said he wasn't worried about being left out of the bowl mix. "I feel good about it," Phillips said. "We're bowl-eligible, we're in the SEC, so I feel good we'll land someplace."

Lindsay Price Zoe Saldana Rachel Perry Mary Elizabeth Winstead Piper Perabo