Sun. Apr 5th, 2026

Year in review, Part 3: A look ahead to 2026

ByNews Center

Dec 28, 2025 #ahead, #Part, #review, #year

MultiStudio/University of Kansas

A rendering exhibits how a $300 million growth challenge on the east aspect of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium might look from the intersection of eleventh and Mississippi streets.

It could not function fairly as a lot upheaval as 2025 — accounting for the House v. NCAA settlement whereas opening a brand new stadium was definitely quite a bit to deal with for the Kansas athletic division — however 2026 will nonetheless be a 12 months of change for KU.

The college’s Gateway challenge is actually solely simply starting, because it embarks on a second section with fairly a broad scope, effectively past merely fixing up the east aspect of the stadium that KU has already knocked down.

On a broader degree, directors and workers may have to proceed to regulate to the brand new period of income sharing and title, picture and likeness funds that coexist and every play key roles in participant retention and acquisition. And recruitment and transfer-portal home windows and pointers nonetheless appear to be in a relentless state of flux — simply take a look on the current surge of NBA G League gamers into the faculty males’s basketball ranks.

The 12 months 2026 will likely be pivotal for a number of athletic applications inside KU, too. The perennial powerhouse males’s basketball crew will look for higher success after consecutive years with disappointing information and anticlimactic NCAA Tournament conclusions — its nonconference schedule has engendered loads of optimism — and the soccer crew will try to return to a bowl recreation following a pair of dropping seasons. The baseball, males’s and ladies’s golf, soccer, tennis and volleyball groups, amongst others, will look to construct on current momentum, whereas softball and ladies’s basketball angle for postseason bids of their very own.

A lot of intrigue awaits when the calendar flips to January.

University of Kansas

A idea of KU’s Gateway District, as supplied to the Lawrence City Commission for overview.

How does the second section of the Gateway challenge proceed?

Demolition is effectively underway on the east aspect of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium as KU proceeds with the second section of its Gateway challenge, which as of October was anticipated to price about $360 million, stretching the general price of the challenge above $800 million.

Already in place are the west aspect of the stadium and the brand new convention middle in its north finish, which opened halfway by way of the autumn soccer season. Now, a lot stays to be revealed concerning the upcoming section, however it’s slated to embrace the next: a lodge adjoining to the convention middle, pupil housing, a car parking zone and area for retail, eating places and places of work. Construction on these parts will stretch effectively past 2026, however KU has dedicated to finishing all its growth by December 2028, because the Journal-World has reported.

One key distinction between phases one and two: KU will proceed to play its soccer video games at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium for the 2026 season. Recall that in 2024 the Jayhawks briefly moved dwelling video games to Children’s Mercy Park and GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium whereas section one was in progress, as a result of KU thought enjoying inside the stadium would have too extreme of a detrimental impact on the timeline for its building.

This time, dwelling video games towards Long Island, Middle Tennessee, Missouri, Baylor, BYU and UCF, on a schedule that largely has but to be revealed, will happen earlier than a reduced-capacity crowd proper at dwelling in Lawrence. (KU is giving up one dwelling recreation towards Arizona State to participate in the Union Jack Classic in London.) It will all make for what is basically the fourth totally different stadium expertise — location however — for the Jayhawks and their followers in the span of 4 seasons, with extra adjustments but to come.

Overtime Elite

Taylen Kinney strains up a shot on the Overtime Elite mix on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Atlanta.

How does Kansas males’s basketball full its 2026 recruiting class?

KU’s current set of 2026 signees is already pretty effectively regarded nationally — it ranks No. 2 in the nation on 247Sports, No. 4 on ESPN and No. 8 on On3. It’s a well-rounded group headlined by five-star Taylen Kinney (Newport, Kentucky), a potent scorer on the level guard spot, with robust complementary items in prolonged lefty energy ahead Davion Adkins (Arlington, Texas), pure shooter Luke Barnett (Laguna Niguel, California) and athletic wing Trent Perry (Frisco, Texas).

Combine that with the big variety of extremely touted gamers on this 12 months’s roster who might make a leap with one other 12 months in the Jayhawks’ program — Kohl Rosario and Bryson Tiller come to thoughts — and the 2026-27 roster is shaping up fairly properly.

But even in the wake of signing Adkins, Barnett, Kinney and Perry, KU coach Bill Self stated he felt the group of incoming freshmen was “probably a player away from it being an elite, elite class.”

If that’s the case, the Jayhawks might go a lot of instructions to add their last piece. The most blatant one can be following by way of on shifting up Javon Bardwell, a long-discussed reclassification candidate who’s already dedicated to KU in the 2027 class. Bardwell is a five-star scoring wing from Harlem, New York, who performs with Kinney in Overtime Elite.

But whether or not that’s KU’s final selection might rely upon how the Jayhawks fare with the big-name prospects who stay uncommitted in 2026. Forward Tyran Stokes, the consensus high prospect in the category, is a longtime KU goal who has visited campus and stored KU in competition for his providers regardless of signing a take care of Nike. His recruitment has taken some uncommon turns, comparable to a switch to Rainier Beach High School in Seattle and a current provide from Vanderbilt. Then there’s Bruce Branch III, who already reclassified from 2027 to 2026 and not too long ago informed On3 he watches Kansas intently as a result of Darryn Peterson is his “favorite player.” And one report in November instructed KU was recruiting Cameroonian middle Amadou Seini.

Whatever occurs, it might take some time — KU’s 2025 freshman class featured one addition in May and two extra late in the summer time — but it surely might additionally dramatically reshape the outlook for subsequent fall.

Sarah Buchanan/Special to the Journal-World

Grant Lockwood received the lads’s 400 meters on the 102nd Kansas Relays on Saturday, April 19, 2025, in Lawrence.

What’s subsequent in the world of price financial savings, if something?

The KU athletic division had to take some drastic measures in 2025 in order to conjure $20 million with which to pay its athletes — all after it had skilled considerably decreased revenues on account of enjoying soccer video games off campus in 2024. So it tried to discover methods to scale back prices.

The Journal-World reported extensively over the course of 2025 about what unfolded because of this. The steps KU took included all the things from a discount in division workers by about 30 workers on account of a hiring freeze, voluntarily separations and layoffs to the cancellation of the 2026 Kansas Relays (with the century-old meet’s long-term future unsure) to the removing of a featured performing artist for Late Night in the Phog. As athletic director Travis Goff put it, the cash an artist would price can be higher spent on gamers for the lads’s and ladies’s basketball groups.

In all, Goff stated in June at a KU Athletics board assembly that over the course of the previous 9 months, KU had discovered methods to scale back its bills by greater than $15 million in whole, a lot of which might not come into play till the fiscal 12 months 2026. Despite that, at a later board assembly in October, administrators accredited a funds projecting a $14.9 million deficit for that fiscal 12 months. The division plans to account for it utilizing a line of credit score, and the thought appears to be that it’ll make cash once more starting in the fiscal 12 months 2028 with a completely operational Gateway challenge.

In the meantime, Goff has stated KU proceeded by way of its cost-management train “with the objective to not have to continually find ways to create new dollars through cuts,” even because the revenue-sharing cap will increase every year. Evidently, 2026 will present the primary check of whether or not KU can in reality keep away from reducing extra facets of its division.

In the meantime, it’s going to have to take care of the results of the actions it has already taken. For instance, Kansas State not too long ago introduced the creation of what it’s calling the inaugural Ok-State Relays, which is able to happen round when KU has held its personal occasion in years previous. It’s solely a highschool meet, so it doesn’t solely change the Kansas Relays, however it’s going to undoubtedly appeal to lots of the athletes from these ranks who would in any other case have been competing at Rock Chalk Park.

AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth

Fireworks earlier than the English FA Cup last soccer match between Crystal Palace and Manchester City at Wembley Stadium in London, Saturday, May 17, 2025.

How will the Union Jack Classic unfold, and the way will it have an effect on the KU soccer program?

The normal proliferation of worldwide competitors in American sports activities, and particularly American soccer, now offers a landmark alternative for Kansas. The Jayhawks will participate in the primary high-major faculty soccer recreation performed in the United Kingdom, and the primary faculty soccer recreation of any variety there since 1988, after they face Arizona State in the Union Jack Classic at Wembley Stadium in London on Sept. 19.

KU coach Lance Leipold has described a global recreation as a uncommon probability to create a memorable expertise for his gamers, in addition to an opportunity to promote the game of faculty soccer and the Big 12. Goff, for his half, in addition to touting the alternatives to market the college and interact worldwide alumni, has declared it a “financially beneficial move” for the college. He has additionally characterised 2026 because the optimum time for KU to basically give up a house recreation as a result of 1) it could have seven in 2026 beneath regular circumstances, so it nonetheless will get an appropriate six and a couple of) it will likely be working with diminished capability in the course of the season due to the aforementioned second section of the Gateway challenge.

There is a key logistical consideration nonetheless at play. KU was initially supposed to host Middle Tennessee on the identical date, Sept. 19. The final time Goff spoke to reporters, at Big 12 basketball media days, he stated KU was nonetheless ready on a waiver to transfer that recreation to the so-called “week zero,” the week earlier than most groups start their season, the identical week in which the Jayhawks performed Fresno State in 2025. (By the way in which, that’s additionally the week in which most worldwide video games happen; will KU’s matchup in London obtain the identical kind of consideration if it has to compete with a daily schedule of video games on Sept. 19?) Goff stated that KU and Middle Tennessee have a contingency plan in place if that doesn’t work out.

KU will even want to devise a journey schedule to and from London that handles the appreciable time change and manages the logistics of the occasion in such a approach that it doesn’t impression the Jayhawks’ previous or successive video games.

Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

The KU softball crew huddles round head coach Jennifer McFalls after defeating Kansas City 8-0 on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, at Arrocha Ballpark in Lawrence.

Can KU softball construct some momentum?

The Kansas softball crew got here extremely shut to the postseason again in 2024. The Jayhawks had positioned themselves effectively for NCAA Tournament competition after they proceeded to lose 10 video games in a row between late April and early May. Six of these have been towards high groups in Texas and Oklahoma State, however KU additionally misplaced a midweek matchup towards Kansas City and all three video games of a house sequence towards BYU.

After going 1-1 on the Big 12 match in Oklahoma City that 12 months, KU got here up empty in the postseason choice present. The Jayhawks gathered in head coach Jennifer McFalls’ basement and skilled the ache collectively. McFalls stated later she felt that the returning gamers determined they by no means needed to really feel that approach once more.

But as an alternative of creating an additional leap in 2025, KU took a step again. The Jayhawks went 22-28 general in the reconstituted Big 12, together with 6-18 in Big 12 play, with only one league win at dwelling. In all, its dwelling document of 4-13 was the worst since Arrocha Ballpark opened in 2014. With a brand new hitting coach in the fold, KU ranked at or close to the underside of most offensive classes in convention play regardless of hitting 24 dwelling runs in these 24 video games, and regardless of constant manufacturing from two-way standout Olivia Bruno, shortstop Hailey Cripe and middle fielder Presley Limbaugh.

What will 2026 maintain? McFalls is coming into her eighth season and in search of her first postseason berth. In their batting lineup, the Jayhawks deliver again practically each main contributor in addition to Bruno and catcher Natalie Marshall. They have a wealth of pitching choices at their disposal, together with a number of freshmen and will get second-year leaps from the likes of Kaelee Washington and Kennedy Diggs; Wichita State switch Chloe Barber might determine in prominently if she regains her early-career kind. KU additionally made the considerably atypical addition of a pair of JUCO gamers from McLennan Community College: outfielder Tehya Pitts and pitcher/utility participant Ellie Loveless.

It stays to be seen whether or not it’s going to quantity to on-field success.

Sarah Buchanan/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas volleyball coach Matt Ulmer sings the nationwide anthem prior to the match towards Kansas State on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025, at Allen Fieldhouse.

Rapid fireplace

— How does the World Cup impression KU? It will turn into obvious fairly early in 2026 simply how concerned Lawrence will likely be with the continuing festivities of the 2026 World Cup subsequent summer time. The metropolis’s long-running marketing campaign to function a base camp for one of many nations participating in the competitors might be going to achieve success, as at the very least one KU official stated he can be shocked if a crew doesn’t choose the Lawrence web site, which options The Oread lodge and Rock Chalk Park and advantages from its central location on the continent, KU’s assets and its proximity to Arrowhead Stadium. The official notification is predicted in late January. Countries which have matches at Arrowhead on their schedule, and particularly Algeria, which has two, appear to be robust candidates. Then it’s a matter of determining how town of Lawrence and the KU campus can accommodate the inflow of tourists this summer time and greatest make the most of the uncommon alternative they current.

— Will extra volleyball be performed at Allen Fieldhouse? KU coach Matt Ulmer needed to play a match at Allen Fieldhouse — the primary the Jayhawks had hosted since 2013 — as a result of he needed to get a way of the true urge for food for volleyball in the area past the couple thousand followers that Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena accommodates. For a Friday evening matchup with Kansas State on Oct. 24, they introduced in 7,550, nearly half the capability of the historic venue. The end result didn’t go the Jayhawks’ approach, because the Wildcats snapped a prolonged dropping streak towards KU, however that doesn’t essentially imply the Jayhawks received’t toy with internet hosting the occasional match there going ahead — at the very least when basketball schedules don’t intrude.

— How does Andrew Derrick do in his first spring season? As Chancellor Douglas Girod has stated, Goff is “batting a thousand” along with his head-coaching hires. Indeed, Leipold (soccer), Lindsay Kuhle (ladies’s golf), Dan Fitzgerald (baseball), Nate Lie (soccer) and Ulmer (volleyball) all hit the bottom operating and in many instances have lifted their respective applications to new heights. Derrick might observe the same sample to Kuhle, Lie and Ulmer, as he was a sitting coach on a well-respected crew — in his case, Gonzaga — from whom KU sought perception on its teaching search, and he ended up changing into fairly in the opening himself. Goff has expressed his perception that KU can turn into a high program in the Midwest and has stated he isn’t in “settling for rowing to be in the 40s or low 50s across the country.” Derrick introduced Gonzaga a set of 4 straight convention titles, and it completed in the highest 20 nationally every of these 4 years. Can he put KU on the trail to such success?

— Will Leipold’s imaginative and prescient for state soccer championships at KU come to fruition? The KU soccer coach stated prior to the beginning of the 2025 soccer season that he and then-Kansas State coach Chris Klieman had mentioned the prospect of trying to host highschool soccer state championships in alternating years at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium in Lawrence and Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan. It’s been greater than twenty years since both metropolis has hosted a state title recreation, and in current years such video games have occurred in locations like Emporia, Hays and Pittsburg. Local highschool coaches expressed enthusiasm for Leipold’s concept, but it surely didn’t appear very far alongside in the method of coming to fruition, and Klieman retired after the season. KSHSAA Assistant Executive Director Mark Lentz stated the affiliation is “always willing to listen and considering offers from the colleges.”