Kansas football: Realistic floor and ceiling scenarios for the Jayhawks in 2023

Kansas football has one of the highest ceilings and lowest floors in the Big 12 Conference, so we examined realistic outcomes for the potential highs and lows of the Jayhawks.

For the first time in over a decade, Kansas Jayhawks fans have reason for optimism heading into the regular season. KU is coming off a 6-7 record last year — including a 5-0 start — and a loss to Arkansas in the Liberty Bowl. They also just so happen to have one of the nation’s best quarterbacks under center for them.

In a successful offseason, head coach Lance Leipold managed to keep the core of his group together while also reeling in several highly touted transfers. Kansas is returning the second-most production among all college football teams and the most in the Big 12. Coming off their best season since 2008, the question surrounding the Jayhawks is not the talent on the field — rather whether that talent will be able to click.

This article will examine the most realistic floor and ceiling of the Jayhawks for this upcoming season. By “realistic” projections, we’re assuming that KU’s ceiling is not going 15-0 and winning a national championship because an analytic model tells us they have a 0.0001% chance of doing so. That’s not a practical forecast, and neither is an 0-12 finish while losing each game by an average of 50 points (sorry K-State fans, not happening).

Does anybody truly know what to expect from Kansas this season? Not necessarily, but we have somewhat of an idea of how the season will go down. With that being said, these are our predictions of the Kansas football floor and ceiling scenarios in 2023.