Kansas football: Impact of ACC news and replacements for Boston College
Kansas football’s game against Boston College in Lawrence will not happen after new scheduling plans were announced by the ACC.
Kansas football has already had to replace one of their non-conference games this season, and it looks like there could be another change on the way given the ACC’s new scheduling plan. The plan dictates that the member schools will play 10 conference games plus one non-con game, but the non-con game must be in the member institution’s home state.
The Jayhawks were set to face Boston College in Lawrence on September 19, but that game won’t be happening, at least not in Lawrence. One option for Kansas could be to play the game on the road; however, it’d be the second year in a row that the Jayhawks play the Eagles in Massachusetts.
The second option for Kansas would be to just cancel the game outright and not play a game that week. This option isn’t ideal for a couple of reasons, one being the long break between the Jayhawks’ first game and second game.
If Kansas cancels, they will have a three-week gap between when they face Southern Illinois in the season opener and when they take on Baylor 9/19. Of course, Kansas Athletics and the town of Lawrence would also lose out on the revenue generated by the game, so that’d hurt as well.
Finally, Kansas could try to find a new opponent to replace Boston College. At this point, the Big 12 is the only Power Five conference that has yet to limit their non-conference schedule in some way. Some of the teams Jayhawks could take on based on possible schedule openings include:
- Navy on 9/5
- UCF on 9/5
- Liberty 9/5
- UCONN on 9/19
All of these teams have openings due to the ACC decision since their games against ACC opponents were not in the ACC institution’s respective state. The Jayhawks do have some flexibility though, given the fact that they have two possible game days: September 5 and 19. Here are some other options for Kansas:
- Colorado State on 9/5
- Florida Atlantic on 9/5
- Utah State on 9/5 or 9/19
- BYU on 9/5 or 9/19
- Temple on 9/5 or 9/19
This is not a comprehensive list of opponents for the Jayhawks, but it a pretty decent group of suitors. The way things are going, there’s a pretty good chance that the Big 12 will move to a modified schedule similar to the other Power Five conferences, so at the end of the day, trying to find an opponent may not matter.