New era indeed: Kansas football announces sellout versus Duke

Thanks to a surprising 3-0 start, Jayhawk fans have rallied in waves to support their football team as Kansas Athletics announced that Saturday’s game versus Duke has officially sold out.

It’s just the second sellout in nearly 13 years for this Kansas football program – the most recent one coming in November 2019 against Kansas State. Though that crowd was almost evenly split with Wildcat fans.

This time, the entire crowd will be in the home team’s corner.

The Jayhawks will need that crowd support as they face a fellow surprisingly undefeated team in Duke.

The Blue Devils are in their first year under new head coach Mike Elko. He replaced long-time head coach David Cutliffe following his mutually agreed upon departure from the school this past offseason.

The Jayhawks are currently 7.5-point favorites according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

What this game means

The matchup against Duke is one of the most important games in years for this program.

In front of a sellout crowd, the Jayhawks have a chance to move to 4-0 for the first time since 2009 and really set the tone heading into the Big 12 stretch of the season.

Duke is the first of a three-game home slate for Kansas. Their next matchups are against the currently undefeated Iowa State Cyclones and TCU Horned Frogs.

Can you imagine this team’s confidence level heading into the Iowa State game at 4-0? It would be sky high.

If that happens, it’s not unreasonable to think that KU could win one or both of those games and possibly become bowl eligible for the first time in 13 years.

Although Duke is 3-0, their three wins have come against Temple, Northwestern, and North Carolina A&T – not an impressive bunch. This is a team Kansas can (and should) beat.

Heading into the season this looked like a winnable game. Now, it’s a must win.

Having a home crowd like the one Kansas is about to have this weekend has been a rare occurrence and the team needs to take advantage of it.

There is so much positive momentum happening with this program (on and off the field) and the Jayhawks have a chance to add to it by winning on Saturday.