Kansas basketball: Would the Jayhawks work in the Big Ten?
Kansas basketball and football have played in the Big 12 conference since its inception. Would the Jayhawks work in the Big Ten?
Kansas basketball and football have been members of the Big 12 since the beginning. They were charter members of the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1907, which would grow into the Big Eight and eventually help form the Big 12 along with members of the Southwest Conference in 1996.
Considering the perception of the Big 12 is that it’s on shaky ground, the idea of conference realignment seems to be brought up during every offseason. One of our sister sites, Hoosier State of Mind, recently brought up the idea of the Jayhawks joining the Big Ten Conference in their article: “Indiana Hoosiers: 5 teams the Big Ten absolutely needs to consider adding.” One team that was mentioned was the Kansas Jayhawks, which is an interesting thought.
If the Big 12 was to announce tomorrow that the conference would be dissolved, where would the most logical landing place for the Jayhawks be? Kansas is in an interesting situation where they actually border a state that features a team in the Big Ten, SEC, and Pac-12; however, they don’t really “fit” in the geography of any of those conferences.
That being said, the SEC is probably a no-go for the Jayhawks given the state of their football program. Between the Pac-12 and Big Ten though, the Big Ten seems like the best choice for the Jayhawks.
The Big Ten is always a strong basketball conference, which would be a huge selling point or bringing in Kansas. Adam Childs of Hoosier State of Mind put it like this:
"“Kansas has dominated the Big 12 and would be so much fun to have in the Big Ten. Imagine a Kansas vs Indiana game in the middle of February with conference title aspirations in mind. Having the Jayhawks compete against the Hoosiers in basketball along with Michigan State, Michigan and Purdue would be great. The ratings would go through the roof for those games.”"
Being able to play other traditional basketball schools like Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue would be a lot of fun, plus being able to rekindle the Kansas-Nebraska series would be cool.
If Kansas was to join, they’d probably be placed in the Big Ten West along with Purdue, Illinois, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska. In the event of a total breakup of the Big 12, another logical addition for the Big Ten West could be West Virginia.
As mentioned, the Kansas football program is a bit of a liability right now; however, that could be changing soon with head coach Les Miles. The program does seem to be trending up for once, and the 2020 season will be important in measuring where the program is at relative to a couple of years ago.
While staying in the Big 12 and improving it by expansion is probably the hope for most Kansas basketball and football fans, there is a possibility that’ll not be an option. Kansas could also drop out of the Power Five and join, say, the AAC, but that just wouldn’t really sit right with a lot of fans. By contrast, the Big Ten offers a chance for the Jayhawks to stay competitive on the national scale, while also finding a new home that won’t be going away anytime soon, if worst comes to worst.