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.
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Washingtons decision also says something about the momentum Kentucky has been able to generate on the trail. He was influenced by the Wildcats upset win over Texas A&M, and his pledge gives the staff another early piece in a quarterback pipeline that already includes other committed players for future classes. Even with this commitment in hand, the bigger picture is still how Kentucky keeps stacking those wins and whether more of them are coming soon. [Read more 🡒]