Kansas enters the 2026 season with the same blunt question hanging over the program: is this the year the Jayhawks turn the corner, or another one that slips away?
Fall camp is rolling on as KU gets ready to open against Long Island University on Friday, Sept. 4, inside David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. Lance Leipold is heading into his sixth year leading the program, and after back-to-back 5-7 finishes, the pressure around the season is easy to read.
There are a few clear checkpoints that could define everything for Kansas. The biggest one comes in Week 3, when the Jayhawks face Arizona State at Wembley Stadium in London.
It will be the first college football game ever played in the historic venue, and the spotlight will be bright. A win there could set KU up to start 3-1, a strong launch point before Big 12 play gets heavy.
That trip to London matters, but so do the rivalry games that sit in the middle of the schedule. Missouri comes to Lawrence for the Border War/Showdown for the first time since 2005, when Kansas beat the Tigers 13-3 under Mark Mangino. Jayhawk fans will be hungry for that one after last year’s 42-31 loss in Columbia and after KU has dropped six of the last seven meetings dating back to 2006.
Kansas State is another mountain. The Wildcats have won 17 straight in the series, a streak the source described as one of the more embarrassing in college football because it comes in an in-state rivalry played every year. If KU somehow snaps that run in Manhattan during Collin Klein’s first season as K-State head coach, it would stand as one of Leipold’s signature moments in Lawrence.
Baylor is part of the same picture. The Bears have beaten Kansas 19 years in a row, and a home win over Baylor would be another major line crossed for the Jayhawks.
Stack those possibilities together - a win over Arizona State, a victory against Missouri, sweeps in nonconference play, bowl eligibility, a bowl win, and finally breaking through against Kansas State and Baylor - and you get the best-case version of this Kansas season.
The worst case is just as plain: none of it happens.
If KU drops the Arizona State game in London and then falls to Missouri at home, the Jayhawks would likely be sitting at 2-2 entering the Big 12 stretch in October. That would make the road to bowl eligibility much tougher. It could also hit home attendance, especially with reduced seating because of construction at The Booth and a Big 12 home slate the source called fairly lackluster.
And if the setbacks pile up from there - a lopsided loss in those early games, an 18th straight defeat to Kansas State, and no end to the 19-year drought against Baylor - then Kansas could miss a bowl and finish 5-7 for a third straight year.
That kind of season would carry real consequences for Leipold’s standing, for the financial backing KU Athletics needs, and for where Kansas sits if conference realignment comes back around again.
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Kansas Just Added Serious NFL Experience To Its Quarterback Room
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The practical value for the Jayhawks is easy to see: Zebrowski can now split the quarterbacks into separate groups during practice and spend more time giving each player the kind of focused instruction that is hard to manage when everyone is clustered together. For a program trying to develop depth and consistency at the most important position on the field, that kind of extra hand in the room could matter a lot. [Read more 🡒]
Paul Mbiya Adds Another Twist To Kansas' Unsettled Center Rotation
Kansas has spent the offseason sorting through its center rotation, and Paul Mbiya just added another layer to the conversation. The big man has been reclassified as a junior under the NCAAs updated international eligibility model, which takes age and prior professional experience into account. Because Mbiya played professionally in France before arriving in Lawrence, his roster status now reflects a different path than the one most college players follow.
For Kansas, the label itself may not change the day-to-day debate over who handles the minutes in the middle, but it does underscore how much the NCAAs international rules are evolving. Mbiya had been listed as a sophomore, and the new designation serves as another reminder that the Jayhawks are working through a center picture shaped as much by eligibility interpretation as by on-court performance. The bigger question is how all of that settles once the season gets rolling. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Faces New Doubt In The Jaxon Kohler Chase
Kansas has been looking for frontcourt help ever since losing Flory Bidunga and dealing with Christian Reeves injury, and Jaxon Kohler had been viewed as one of the more intriguing names in that search. The big man had been weighing Kansas along with BYU, Kentucky and Michigan State, giving the Jayhawks a real chance to add size and experience to a roster that suddenly needed both.
Now the chase looks a little more complicated, with another major program entering the mix and adding a fresh layer of competition. Kohlers path is already clouded by NCAA eligibility questions for the 2026-27 season, so even for a team as persistent as Kansas, this is no simple recruiting battle - and it leaves the Jayhawks waiting on a decision that could reshape how they approach the frontcourt. [Read more 🡒]