Everyone thought that Kansas’ season ended with a 31-21 loss at the hands of the Utah Utes, in what was a heartbreaking fourth quarter that saw Utah topple on 21 points to make it back-to-back 5-7 seasons for Lance Leipold and his Kansas Jayhawks.
However, earlier this evening, a report from recruiting database On3 stated that Kansas was given an option to play a bowl game but declined, a common theme among teams that go 5-7 that has risen over the past couple of seasons.
At least 7 teams that were 5-7 have now declined a bowl bid: Florida State, Auburn, UCF, Baylor, Rutgers, Temple & Kansas, sources told @On3sports. The quest continues to find an opponent for Georgia Southern in the Birmingham Bowl
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 8, 2025
While Kansas has yet to release an official statement on this, as the number of teams shown in this post shows, most 5-7 teams tend to decline bowl game invitations.
The old-fashioned quota in football used to be six wins, and that felt like a trend that would last a lifetime, which is why maybe Kansas rejected this.
The Jayhawks got off to a 2-0 start with wins over Fresno State and Wagner before hitting their first bump in the road in a 42-31 loss at the hands of the Missouri Tigers, in what was an all out war until Kansas stumbled on just one drive midway through the fourth and allowed the Missouri to lay the killer blow.
Kansas then vented their frustrations with a 42-10 win over West Virginia to open up conference play.
Lance Leipold’s team then took on the Cincinnatti Bearcats in what was another eerily similar game to Missouri. Offenses shredding each other apart until the Bearcats took the capping score and won 37-34 late in the fourth.
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A gritty 27-20 Saturday night win showed that Kansas can respond to a late game, all of these giving the Jayhawks a 4-2 start.
What followed was back-to-back 42-17 losses at the hands of Texas Tech and Kansas State, before Leipold’s team took down Oklahoma State 38-21 in what would be the last win of Kansas’ season.
The Jayhawks then fell to Arizona 24-20, Iowa State 38-14, and the Utes, which under normal circumstances would have eliminated them from bowl eligibility.