25 Wildcats Set for December Graduation
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Twenty-five current and former Wildcat student-athletes from seven University of Kentucky teams are on track to graduate Friday.
The University of Kentucky’s December Commencement ceremonies will be held at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center on this schedule https://commencement.uky.edu/december-2025. Adding the 116 student-athletes who graduated in May, UK Athletics is expected to have 141 graduates during the 2025 calendar year alone.
Along with 19 student-athletes who are currently competing or recently completed eligibility, six are expected to graduate after finishing their undergraduate work as part of UK Athletics’ Cawood Ledford Post-Eligibility program. Those athletes are Kole Cottam, Magdiel Cotto, J.T. Riddle and Cole Stupp from baseball, Shagari Alleyne from men’s basketball and Ryotaro Matsumura from men’s tennis.
Through the Cawood Ledford Post-Eligibility Program, UK Athletics pays for tuition and books for scholarship student-athletes who return to school after completing their eligibility. Since its inception in 1989, 192 Wildcats have returned to graduate through the program.
Two Wildcats, Wilson Berry from football and Jordan Obi from women’s basketball, are completing master’s degrees.
Below is the complete list of expected graduates:
+Kole Cottam – Baseball
+Magdiel Cotto – Baseball
+J.T. Riddle – Baseball
+Cole Stupp – Baseball
+Shagari Alleyne – Men’s Basketball
+Ryotaro Matsumura – Men’s Tennis
Luke Brown – Men’s Track & Field
Beau Allen – Football
*Wilson Berry – Football
Joshua Braun – Football
Jager Burton – Football
Zach Calzada – Football
J.J. Hester – Football
Josh Kattus – Football
Cole Lanter – Football
Aidan Laros – Football
Kendrick Law – Football
Alex McLaughlin – Football
Kam Olds – Football
Chy Rivers – Football
Kahlil Saunders – Football
Landyn Watson – Football
Alex Wollschlaeger – Football
*Jordan Obi – Women’s Basketball
Skye Leach – Women’s Soccer
+ indicates graduating as part of the Post-Eligibility Program
* indicates graduating with a masters degree
Graduation marks yet another milestone of academic success for UK student-athletes. Guided by UK Athletics’ Student-Athlete Experience Division, Wildcat student-athletes have achieved a cumulative grade-point average of better than 3.0 in 26 consecutive semesters, with grades for the fall semester set to be finalized next week. Recently, UK set the school record for its NCAA Graduation Success Rate of 93 percent, while all of UK’s teams surpassed the mandatory score for the NCAA Academic Progress Rate. UK’s overall APR rate was higher than the overall national average.
