The Kansas Jayhawks are days away from launching their 2026 campaign.
This week has already seen massive news as the Jayhawks officially announced redshirt sophomore Isaiah Marshall as the team’s starting quarterback following a long battle with redshirt junior Cole Ballard.
This week has also seen pundits and analysts from across the nation staple their predictions for nearly all FBS teams, the Jayhawks without exception.
Latest Big 12 order of finish predicts a terribly down season for Kansas
Earlier this week, CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli, Chip Patterson, Brandon Marcello, John Talty, Richard Johnson, Brad Crawford and Chris Hummer each laid out where they expect each Big 12 team to land by regular season's end.
The highest any of them placed KU was 12th, by Talty. Hummer projected 13th, with Johnson, Marcello and Patterson sending them to 14th. Fornelli squeezed Kansas into 15th, with Crawford planting them all the way down to last place. Crawford was the only writer who selected another team besides Iowa State to finish in last place.
Mapping out a route where this is possible
Firstly, let's look at Kansas’ Big 12 schedule. Each conference game will be listed below.
Arizona State (N), September 19, Union Jack Classic
Utah (A), October 10
Kansas State (A), October 17
Baylor (H), October 24
TCU (A), October 31
UCF (H), November 7
WVU (A), November 14
BYU (H), November 21
Oklahoma State (A), November 28
Now, no one is going to look at this schedule and tell you this is a cakewalk. That being said, you would think KU could scrape out at least three wins from this set, likely coming from UCF, Baylor and probably WVU, with a chance of Oklahoma State if the Cowboys’ first year under Eric Morris shows more flaws than expected. However, looking at this from CBS Sports’ projection, those four conference wins will have to be sliced in half, and then some.
This also probably assumes that Marshall struggles in his first year as a starting quarterback, which honestly isn’t a burning hot take. While Marshall flashed in his moments on the field last season, he has hardly seen the starting line of Big 12 defenses. Kansas probably also fails to pick up its red-zone conversion rate from last season that finished 124th last season.
On the defensive side, it is hard to find any major gaps in the front two lines, barring Tre’Von McAlpine, who is set to miss the entire season thanks to an injury sustained in the offseason.
Which means it could be another season where Kansas struggles to stop rushing attacks from the secondary, a massive thorn in the side from last season, when the Jayhawks allowed 184.1 yards on the ground per game, 105th-best in the FBS.
Now, how likely is all this to happen? To be honest, nothing laid out above is out of the realm of possibility, but even with the struggles last season, KU was still a bounce of the ball away from a win against Cincinnati and fell a combined 13 points short against both Arizona and Utah.
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