Kansas football found stability under Lance Leipold, but that stability now comes with a hard question attached to it.
Leipold arrived in 2021 with a reputation for building programs, and for a while it looked like Kansas had finally found the answer it had been chasing for years. By the end of his third season, the Jayhawks had stacked up back-to-back bowl appearances, won a bowl game, and snapped several losing streaks that had lingered for decades.
But the momentum has not held. Six years into the job, Leipold has only one winning season, and Kansas is again staring at a losing year after falling to 0-6 against Kansas State and 0-2 against Missouri. At this point, the argument is that he has hit his ceiling in Lawrence.
That creates a messy reality for Kansas Athletics Director Travis Goff. The school is already carrying a heavy financial load because of the football stadium and Gateway District project, an approximately $800 million undertaking that has required major resources from KU Athletics and donors.
On top of that, Kansas is dealing with the same revenue-sharing and NIL pressures facing schools across the country. The money is tight.
That matters because Leipold’s contract, extended in early 2024 through the 2029 season, is expensive to move off of. If KU were to fire him without cause after Dec. 1 of this year, the buyout would be nearly $18 million.
That would be paid monthly over a year, at roughly $1.5 million per month. And that’s before accounting for the assistants KU would still have to pay, plus the cost of hiring an entirely new staff.
For Kansas, patience also has a price. The longer Leipold stays without producing the kind of sustained success the program was hoping for, the more likely football revenue takes a hit through declining ticket sales.
That leaves KU in a bind. Unless a donor or donors are willing to step in and cover the buyout, or Leipold and the school reach a less costly parting of ways, Kansas may have little choice but to stay put.
That’s where the fear starts to creep in for some fans. They remember what came before Leipold, and they don’t want to go back there.
It’s a fair concern. Kansas football has burned people more than once.
Still, the point here is that KU can’t let that history make the decision for it. Leipold may have been the right hire when he was brought in, but the program is asking a different question now: is he still the right coach for where Kansas needs to go next?
There is no guarantee the next hire would work out. But Goff’s coaching hires at KU have been strong across the board, and the next coach would inherit a much better setup than the one Leipold found. The new stadium, a first-class locker room, and state-of-the-art training facilities would all be part of the package, along with an athletics department that has shown it is committed to making football work.
Kansas has already seen what Leipold can do. The issue now is whether that is enough. The ghosts of the past can’t be the thing that keeps KU from making the next hard choice.
In Other News...
Kansas Just Added A Purdue Veteran Bill Self Can Actually Use
Trey Kaufman-Renn is bringing a rare blend of experience to Lawrence after five seasons at Purdue, and the timing could not be better for a Kansas roster that can use more proven production up front. A court ruling has granted him an additional year of college eligibility while his case against the NCAA continues, giving Bill Self another veteran forward with a rsum built in the Big Ten and on the NCAA Tournament stage.
For Kansas, the appeal is obvious: Kaufman-Renn arrives with the kind of scoring touch and rebounding presence that can help stabilize a frontcourt and ease some pressure on the rotation. His path to campus is still tied to an unresolved legal fight, but the Jayhawks have added a player who has already logged meaningful high-level minutes and should be able to contribute right away. [Read more 🡒]
Bill Self Is Pushing Kansas Deeper Into A Risky New Reality
The first exhibition in Allen Fieldhouse came with a visible change underfoot, as new Monster Energy logos appeared on the Kansas court and offered another reminder of how quickly the mens basketball program is adapting to a shifting college sports landscape. Just before the season opener, the Jayhawks also added former Purdue forward and Minnesota Timberwolves draft pick Trey Kaufman-Renn, giving Bill Self another veteran piece as Kansas continues to piece together a roster built in part through unusual and highly specific circumstances.
What stands out now is how much of that roster exists under court-ordered eligibility, with Trey Kaufman-Renn joining Tre White and Melvin Council Jr. in that category. Each case carries its own legal wrinkle, and together they underscore how Kansas is operating in a reality that would have seemed hard to imagine even a few seasons ago. The talent is there, but so is the uncertainty, and the Jayhawks are finding themselves deeper into that mix as the season begins. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Freshmen Already Felt The Impact Of Two Late Returns
When Tre White and Melvin Council Jr. rejoined Kansas basketball late in the process, the ripple effects showed up almost immediately in the locker room. Both players reclaimed the jersey numbers they had worn before their brief departures, with White taking back No. 3 and Council returning to No. 14, a small detail that still carried real significance for a roster trying to settle in before the season.
The timing meant freshmen Atticus Richmond and Luke Barnett had to adjust after being initially assigned those numbers themselves. They moved to different jerseys once White and Council were back in the fold, a reminder of how the legal rulings that allowed the two veterans to return to school shortly before the season created a little extra churn even before Kansas ever took the floor. [Read more 🡒]