Kansas’ 2026-27 neutral-site schedule already has a little edge to it, and that’s before the season even starts.
The Jayhawks are set to go through their annual Late Night in the Phog in about 20 days against Pittsburg State, then move into exhibitions against Louisville and Duke before opening the regular season at Allen Fieldhouse against Fordham. For now, Kansas’ 2026-27 schedule includes 16 home games, 10 road games and four neutral-site matchups, with the chance for more if the Jayhawks make a run in the Players Era 8.
Leaving the Players Era 8 out of the mix, here’s a ranking of Kansas’ neutral-site games from toughest to easiest.
Kentucky on Nov. 10 sits at No. 1, and that one comes with plenty of juice. The matchup got even hotter when the No. 1 player in the class of 2026, Tyran Stokes, chose Kansas.
Another name to keep an eye on is Milan Momcilovic, who scored 18 points in the second meeting between Kansas and Iowa State last season. If the Jayhawks can limit him and make someone else carry the offense, that could swing the game.
Ohio State lands at No. 2 on Dec. 19, though there’s an argument for flipping it with Missouri. The Buckeyes are replacing three of their top scorers from last season, which is a real concern, but they also add Anthony Thompson, the No. 7 player in the class of 2026.
Thompson is expected to be the centerpiece, while transfer forward Will Pippen should also have a major role for a team led by Jake Diebler. Diebler is 46-31 and will enter his third full season as Ohio State’s head coach after the Buckeyes reached the NCAA Tournament in 2025-26.
Missouri checks in at No. 3 on Dec. 6, and the Border Showdown has extra spice with former Kansas Jayhawk Bryson Tiller set to play for the Tigers. Dennis Gates has another strong recruiting haul coming in, highlighted by the nation’s No. 5 freshman, Jason Crowe Jr., along with the No. 24 player, Toni Bryant, and the No. 87 player, Aidan Chronister. With this being the last scheduled meeting between the two schools, both sides will treat it like a must-win.
UNLV rounds out the list at No. 4 on Nov. 17, though the Runnin’ Rebels still bring some intrigue. Josh Pastner, the former ACC champion, is leading the program after stops at Memphis and Georgia Tech.
He went 167-73 at Memphis and 109-114 at Georgia Tech, where winning the 2020-21 ACC tournament title stood out as a highlight. Pastner took over at UNLV before last season and finished year one at 18-17.
The Rebels are expected to have nine transfers this offseason, and AJ Storr remains a wild card. The former Jayhawk is listed on the UNLV roster, though he is currently ineligible, which leaves room for that situation to change quickly.
In Other News...
Kansas Suddenly Needs Tate Nagy More Than Ever
Kansas has stumbled out to a 1-2 start, and the early-season hit list has already made depth and playmaking feel like urgent issues. In that kind of stretch, Tate Nagy has become a particularly useful development for the Jayhawks. The sophomore wide receiver and returner has taken a clear step forward, giving the offense and special teams a jolt at a time when the team has needed almost every positive it can find.
Lance Leipold has noticed the difference, pointing to Nagys competitiveness and the way he has shown up even as the rest of the roster has dealt with injuries and uneven results. For a program looking to steady itself quickly, that kind of growth matters beyond the box score. Kansas does not have the luxury of waiting long for more emergence, and Nagy has started to look like one of the few players capable of swinging a game when the Jayhawks need it most. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Kentucky Clash Already Carries More Than Early-Season Hype
Kansas and Kentucky are back on the same stage in Chicago this fall, and the matchup already feels like more than a standard early-season showcase. The Jayhawks will take on the Wildcats at the United Center as part of the 16th annual Champions Classic, with Duke and Michigan State opening the doubleheader earlier in the night. It is the kind of November event that tends to draw attention on name alone, but this one carries an added layer because of how often these programs have been tied together in the national conversation.
For Kansas fans, the setting is familiar but the context is not. This will be the first Champions Classic in history without Bill Self opposite John Calipari, a coaching rivalry that helped define the event for years and gave the matchup an extra edge beyond the rankings and the venue. Calipari is now at Arkansas, leaving a different feel to a meeting that still arrives with plenty of stakes and enough intrigue to make the opener in Chicago worth watching closely. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Faces A Brutal Big 12 Road Test This Season
Kansas Big 12 road slate is already looking like one of the sharper measuring sticks on the 2025-26 schedule, with a trip-by-trip ranking that leans heavily on current roster outlooks, coaching stability and how each league opponent has looked lately. Utah and TCU sit near the more manageable end of the list, while Kansas State, Cincinnati, Baylor, BYU, Iowa State and Arizona all bring a different kind of problem depending on what kind of form they carry into winter.
The real issue for Kansas is how little margin there figures to be once the games start tilting toward the tougher end of that road chart. Some stops come with established coaches and systems, others with talent that can overwhelm if the Jayhawks are not sharp from the jump, and a couple of those venues have already earned reputations for being hard places to survive. It leaves Kansas with a schedule that may not decide the Big 12 race by itself, but could shape how high the Jayhawks are still flying when March comes into view. [Read more 🡒]