Kansas and Kentucky now know exactly when they’ll take the floor in Chicago.
The Jayhawks will meet the Wildcats at 8:30 p.m. CT on Nov. 10 at the United Center in the 16th annual Champions Classic, following Kansas’ early-season games against Fordham and Middle Tennessee State to open the 2026-27 season.
The other matchup on the card has Duke and Michigan State starting at 6 p.m. CT.
For Kansas, the trip to the United Center comes with a familiar backdrop. The Champions Classic, which started in 2011, rotates four of college basketball’s biggest names through a yearly showcase, and Kansas has gone 3-2 against Kentucky in the event. The Jayhawks will try to add to that edge when the teams meet again.
The last time these two programs shared the floor, it was also in Chicago. Kansas came away with an 89-84 win over Kentucky in the United Center in the third game of the Hunter Dickinson era. Before that, last year’s Champions Classic was at Madison Square Garden, and the year before it was staged at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
Kentucky’s roster gives this one some extra juice for Jayhawk fans. Mark Pope’s most notable offseason pickup was Milan Momcilovic, the Serbian shooter who has given Kansas problems during his time at Iowa State. The Wildcats also brought in Washington transfer Zoom Diallo, who averaged 15.7 points and 4.5 assists per game, along with former Furman guard Alex Wilkins, who put up 17.8 points and 4.7 assists per game.
There’s another layer here, too: top-ranked freshman Tyran Stokes, who picked his school after a heated recruiting battle between Kansas and Kentucky, only adds more heat to the matchup.
This will also mark the first Champions Classic game in which Bill Self is not coaching against John Calipari, who is now at Arkansas. Pope went 1-1 in the event last season, losing to Michigan State and beating Duke in 2024.
And for anyone making the long drive from Lawrence to Chicago, there’s one more thing to keep in mind: the second game of the Champions Classic often starts later than scheduled because of the setup between contests. That means a tip just after 9 p.m. CT may be closer to the real thing, depending on how long Duke and Michigan State take.
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 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 🡒]
Kansas Suddenly Needed This Bye Week More Than Anyone Expected
Kansas has been hit by an early-season wave of injuries that has already started to reshape the feel of its 2026 start, with several key contributors limited or sidelined before conference play even arrives. The Jayhawks have had to lean into their next-man-up approach, and quarterback Isaiah Marshall has talked about that mindset as the group tries to keep moving while bodies continue to pile up across the roster.
The pause in the schedule now looks a lot more valuable than it did a few weeks ago. Lance Leipold has made clear the running back room is a concern, and the bye gives Kansas a chance to breathe while players such as Daveon Crouch, Yasin Willis, Cole Ballard, Carson Bruhn, Cam Pickett and TreVon McAlpine work toward getting back. How many of them are ready when Big 12 play begins could go a long way toward shaping the Jayhawks' early ceiling. [Read more 🡒]