I was going to say that this isn't really the case when we're talking about Kentucky in the SEC East, but just out of curiosity I went to see when the last time was that Kentucky was this high in the East pecking order after 4 games.

Turns out it was last year, when Kentucky was 2-2 in conference after 4 games, while Georgia also started 2-2 in conference play and only Florida had a better record and everyone else started 1-3 or 0-4.

In 2014 they were tied for 3rd after 4 conference games, as only Georgia and Missouri had better than a 2-2 conference record after 4 games.

Before that was more of what I was expecting though. Prior to 2014 Kentucky opened the first four games of conference play 0-4 three straight years (two of those years ending 0-8 in conference), and 1-3 for three straight years before that.

So, prior to 2014 it definitely didn't take more than 4 conference games for Kentucky to settle to the bottom of the pack, but they seem to be moving on up in recent years. (Or maybe their schedule just got more front-loaded. That 2014 went from a fairly promising start, 5-1 with the single loss being 3OT to Florida, to finishing 5-7. Ouch.)