With a different calendar layout and no Week 0 game this season — despite Kansas’ best efforts — the KU football schedule looks quite a bit different in 2026.
The Jayhawks will open on Sept. 4, a full 12 days later than they did in 2025, and on a Friday rather than a Saturday. That’s made for a longer offseason than usual, and the schedule will go in some additional interesting directions when KU heads across the pond several weeks into its season for the Union Jack Classic on Sept. 19, takes advantage of an early bye week and then plays nine consecutive games to close out the year.
It’ll be a grind, but one for which the Jayhawks have prepared with a revised fall camp schedule — three days of practice before an off day, instead of four — and some other new elements designed to help them weather what lies ahead and ultimately grow beyond the 5-7 records of 2024 and 2025.
Here’s a closer look at the first six opponents of KU’s regular-season schedule. The remaining teams will be featured in the second part of this article.
Long Island linebacker Rafael Fasolino (20) eyes the passer as he defends during an NCAA football game on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025 in Gainesville, Fla.
Long Island (Sept. 4): The LIU Sharks of the FCS have only existed as such for seven years since the merger of the university’s two campuses into a single athletic program. They went 4-20 over their first three years of existence before improving to 4-7 in Ron Cooper’s opening season.
The Sharks were 4-7 again in 2023 and 4-8 in 2024, but took a step forward last year at 6-6, including the program’s first-ever win over an FBS program. Quarterbacks Ethan Greenwood and Luca Stanzani ran for two touchdowns each in a 28-23 victory over Eastern Michigan. That was LIU’s only win in its first six games before it flipped the script to finish 5-1.
LIU deployed three quarterbacks regularly last season, but Greenwood returns this year as a preseason All-NEC selection, along with teammates Sean Broderick (a redshirt sophomore offensive lineman), Kezni Brown (redshirt junior defensive tackle), Rafael Fasolino (sixth-year linebacker) and Trey Watkins (redshirt senior defensive back). Watkins is a returning first-team all-conference pick from 2025, when he recorded 51 tackles with five interceptions and a forced fumble.
As a team, the Sharks were picked to finish third in the NEC, one spot ahead of Wagner, which KU beat 46-7 last year.
Missouri running back Jamal Roberts (20) during an NCAA college football game on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, in Columbia, Mo.
Missouri (Sept. 11): When KU hosts its bitter rival this year at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, it will be the first such matchup in Lawrence since 2005. It will also mark the second of four games in this renewed series, with the next one coming in 2031 at Faurot Field.
This year’s Tigers are projected around the middle of the pack in the SEC but still come in as the preseason No. 25 team in the nation. One of the dominant storylines of their offseason has been the health of Ahmad Hardy, the All-American junior running back who was injured in a shooting in May. It’s not clear whether Hardy will be ready for the season, but Missouri has quality depth in Jamal Roberts, who scored the game-clinching touchdown against KU last season, and Houston Christian transfer Xai’Shaun Edwards.
The new quarterback is Austin Simmons, the former Ole Miss lefty displaced last season by the rise of Trinidad Chambliss. Protecting his blind side will be Cayden Green, a onetime guard who is one of the nation’s best at his position.
Baylor quarterback Sawyer Robertson, left, is sacked by Arizona State’s C.J. Fite, right, in the second half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, in Waco, Texas.
Arizona State (Sept. 19): Whatever happens in London, the results that ASU and KU experience for the remainder of the season will likely be broadly interpreted as a consequence of whatever has happened in the Union Jack Classic. That’s how it tends to go with international games, the losers of which often struggle down the stretch.
This will be the first college football game played at Wembley Stadium, which for many years has hosted the NFL. ASU plans to travel across the pond directly after its road tilt with Texas A&M, while KU will make its own journey midway through the week.
The Sun Devils didn’t quite reach the heights of 2024 but were still competitive in Kenny Dillingham’s third season at the helm. Gone is quarterback Sam Leavitt, who transferred to LSU. Whoever starts between veterans Cutter Boley (Kentucky) and Mikey Keene (Michigan) will have an impressive receiving corps featuring transfer additions Reed Harris (Boston College) and Omarion Miller (Colorado).
It was quite apparently a transfer-heavy offseason for ASU, and at least one such player will be particularly familiar to KU fans: former Jayhawk safety Lyrik Rawls, who spent the 2025 season in Lawrence.
Defensive tackle C.J. Fite, a senior who recorded 29 tackles last year with 6.5 for loss, is one prominent returning player, and he and Miller made the preseason all-league team.
Middle Tennessee wide receiver Cam’ron Lacy (13) during an NCAA football game against Delaware on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025, in Newark, Del. Delaware won 31-28.
Middle Tennessee (Oct. 3): One of the biggest consequences of KU’s participation in the Union Jack Classic was having to move the game against the Blue Raiders that had previously been scheduled for Sept. 19. The Jayhawks originally thought they could get it switched to Week 0 to serve as the season opener, an effort in which they were ultimately unsuccessful. So now they will return from London, enjoy a bye week and prepare to play nine consecutive games to close out the year.
Moving Middle Tennessee was expensive, too — KU Athletics will now pay its opponent an additional $140,000 on top of its $925,000 guarantee, according to a contract obtained by the Journal-World via the Kansas Open Records Act. That’s a seven-figure buy game.
In any case, the Blue Raiders have endured consecutive 3-9 seasons under former Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason. They did win their last two games of 2025 under quarterback Roman Gagliano, who in three starts threw for 1,005 yards with seven touchdowns and no interceptions.
MTSU had five players accrue between 400 and 550 receiving yards last season — Nahzae Cox, now at KU, was one of them — and the leader, Cam’ron Lacy, is back after averaging 14.4 yards per catch. Former Kansas State running back Antonio Martin, who didn’t make much of an impact with the Wildcats after rushing for 1,228 yards and 11 touchdowns in one year at Southeastern Louisiana, will try to regain his form at the Group of Six level.
Along with Lacy, several Blue Raiders made Conference USA’s preseason watchlist, including Reese Tripp, a massive 6-foot-7, 353-pound offensive lineman formerly of Minnesota; returning pass rusher Reggie Johnson; Grand Valley State transfer cornerback Jason Hardy, who had three picks last year; and kicker Dominic Bourgeois, who went a perfect 20-for-20 at Division III Susquehanna in 2025.
Utah quarterback Devon Dampier looks to pass during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Kansas, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Lawrence.
Utah (Oct. 10): The first of several Big 12 foes with new head coaches that KU will face this season, Utah endured a somewhat awkward transition to its longtime head-coach-in-waiting Morgan Scalley when Kyle Whittingham jumped to Michigan. Scalley had been at Utah for 19 seasons, including a decade as the defensive coordinator. He lost a variety of staffers and key players to Whittingham and the Wolverines. Former Utah State offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven took the same role with the Utes, and Scalley managed to retain other staffers like Colton Swan (linebackers coach promoted to defensive coordinator) and Sharrieff Shah (cornerbacks coach and special teams coordinator).
After losing its impressive offensive tackles to the NFL and players like edge rusher John Henry Daley and cornerback Smith Snowden to Michigan, the Utes were able to retain dynamic dual-threat quarterback Devon Dampier and running back Wayshawn Parker, who were both third-team all-league last season. They also kept Dampier’s backup Byrd Ficklin, who ran for 513 yards and 10 touchdowns on 8.4 yards per carry last year.
Despite all of its attrition, and even with return man Mana Carvalho as its only preseason All-Big 12 honoree, Utah still made the AP Top 25 at No. 21. Braden Pegan, a 6-foot-3 wideout who caught 60 passes for 926 yards and five touchdowns with McGiven at USU last year in the first notable action of his college career, is the Utes’ biggest-name transfer addition.
Kansas State quarterback Avery Johnson, right, hands the ball off to running back Joe Jackson, left, during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Utah, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, in Salt Lake City.
Kansas State (Oct. 17): The Jayhawks’ dire losing streak to their in-state rivals drew on for yet another season in 2025. Even as KU was facing one of the worst KSU teams of recent years, it still managed to lose in blowout fashion on a gloomy afternoon in Lawrence.
Now KU will attempt to prevent the streak from reaching an 18th consecutive season, this time on the road in Manhattan, as new K-State head coach and renowned former quarterback Collin Klein attempts to continue the work of Bill Snyder and Chris Klieman. Klein brought on a familiar face in his former Texas A&M colleague, previously KU’s co-defensive coordinator, Jordan Peterson, who will lead the Wildcats’ defense.
The coaching change, which occurred in December after Klieman’s retirement, did not cause a significant amount of tumult on KSU’s roster. Key players like quarterback Avery Johnson, running back Joe Jackson, wide receiver Jaron Tibbs and tight end Garrett Oakley stuck around on offense, along with cornerbacks Donovan McIntosh and Zashon Rich, linebacker Rex Van Wyhe, safety Wesley Fair and more on defense.
The transfer-laden offensive line is a bit of a question mark, particularly after losing all-conference left tackle John Pastore to a season-ending injury. Some of the most prominent transfers are at defensive end, where KSU reeled in former Oklahoma State standout Wendell Gregory and Elijah Hill of Kennesaw State; a fellow former Cowboy, Rodney Fields Jr., will also join Jackson in the backfield.
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