Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Who, What, When, Where and Why: The 2024 Kansas Jayhawks Football Schedule is Out

Episode Date: February 1, 2024

The 2024 Kansas Jayhawks Football and Big 12 schedule is officially out. Who KU is playing, where they'll be playing - Arrowhead Stadium home of the Kansas City Chiefs and Children's Mercy Park home of Sporting KC - when they'll be playing, when the bye weeks are and more. Most challenging and exciting home and away games, record prediction and more for Lance Leipold's team.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelNew customers, join today and you’ll get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your first bet of FIVE DOLLARS or more wins. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

12-0, question mark, on today's Locked on Jayhawks, the story of the KU football schedule. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcasts. You can also find us on our YouTube page for free where you can like

and subscribe to our show and check out everything. Thank you to Everdare for tuning in to all the stuff with basketball content with some of the recaps, upcoming Houston preview in today's episode. We're talking the KU football schedule was released. Where are they going to even be playing the games? When are they going to be playing? Who are they going to be playing? How does the schedule shape up? What's the hardest games?

What's the easiest games? And maybe an early record prediction for KU. First, this episode, though, is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more. New customers join today and you'll get $200 in bonus bets. If your first bet of $5 or more wins, visit FanDuel.com slash locked on to get started. So KU, I think, has a pretty favorable schedule here for KU. Enough so that you feel like they can be a legit Big 12 title contender, that the schedule sets up for them to have that

special type season where they can win you know nine ten games i don't know maybe they end up being favored in like 11 of their games or something like that on the season and can have that special year where they're playing in a big 12 title where in an expanded college football playoff you go 10 and 2 and then you win the big 12 title and you go 11 and 2 you're making it into the playoff and you might not just make it in the playoff. You might get a top four seed because the top four seeds are all the – so the top five highest-ranked conference winners get automatically in, and the top four seeds who get the first-round buy are all among – you have to win your conference to get a top four seed.

So theoretically, Georgia could be number one. Alabama, even if they're the number two team in the country at that point, would be number five in the format that they're kind of proposing. So yes, the schedule is very important here for KU. But big question coming in, where are they going to be playing their games? Because Kansas' current stadium, Memorial Stadium, is under construction. They just tossed down the scoreboard the other day. It plotted in.

And if you've been by Memorial Stadium it is uh just filled with rubble and construction and all sorts of i guess just things being destroyed and they have a live stream and everything going like that so i i know originally the plan was to kind of do construction on the fly and do like one half of the stadium and then play games where you could still have half the stadium open and and maybe bring in some bleachers. I don't know. At some point in time, Kansas has changed that around and made the decision to be like, you know what? Maybe that's not a great idea. Maybe it's not a great idea to have fans show up to an active construction site and sit in a stadium where like half of it is not done.

And it looks weird. And you see all these cranes and I don't know, construction buildings and dusty and all this different stuff. Why don't we look elsewhere to see where we can go? And so what ends up happening here is they have six home games, their first two home games coming against Lindenwood, which is their season opener. And Lindenwood is an FCS team. And that'll be played by the way on a Thursday night to open up the season. And then their second home game, which is their third overall game of the season, but their second home game, which is their third overall game of the season, but their second home game against UNLV in their bowl game rematch. Those are both going to be played at Children's Mercy Park, which that is where Sporting Kansas City plays.

The capacity is around 18 to 19,000. I know they've gotten up to like 25,000 for concerts, but obviously that's getting to use the infield, which you're not going to be able to do for the football game. So around 20,000, if you just want to's getting to use the infield, which you're not going to be able to do for the football game. So around 20,000, if you just want to kind of, you know, ballpark it for the capacity for, for those games. I actually think this is going to be kind of nice for KU fans in terms of obviously if you're living in Lawrence or you're living in Topeka, it'll obviously be a bit more of a drive,

but there are a lot of KU fans who live in Johnson County, who live in Overland Park, Olathe, Kansas City, Kansas, Lenexa, some of these areas that are close by, and it might actually be a closer drive for them to come to this game. Obviously, it'll be around 20,000, so it's not like you got to fill with more stadium where it's around 45,000 to 50,000, and so you might actually get a bigger crowd with Kansas City. The fact that it's on a Thursday night, you know, some of the problem with when KU has played these Friday night games or whatever it is, Thursday night games, the last couple of years is that it's been tough for people who, because there is that big crowd of people who, you know, live in the Johnson County area and have to drive

into the game. If it's a Friday night game at seven o'clock, for instance, and you're not getting off work till five or six o'clock, and then you have to make, you know, that drive from Johnson County. And usually there's all that bad construction and traffic and then parking and everything. You might not make it on time for the game. You might just sell the ticket or you might just not go,

or you might not get the opportunity to tailgate, which is part of fun, but because this will actually be easier to get to for them, I think it will have a good attendance there. So I think that actually works out and you'll have a close knit hyped up environment for those games that sold out. And I think we'll end up being a good environment uh the next and final four home games which will all be your conference home games coming against TCU Houston Iowa State and Colorado

those are all going to be played at Arrowhead Stadium where the Kansas City Chiefs play and obviously it presents its challenges with travel for againians, even more so for Topekans and students, obviously. And still, even people in Overland Park or Olathe, just not as much as Lawrence. I mean, it's still, you know, you're talking 20, 25 minutes, depending where you live, in some different Kansas City suburbs to get there. Hopefully, students get bussed in. This applies for Children's Mercy Park, too. Hopefully, they come up with a shuttle or bussing service that can get as many students there as possible obviously with the sporting kc less capacity so that might not be as big of an issue to fill it out hopefully they put them

in the area where like the sporting kc crazy fans go behind the goals and that would be the students are with arrowhead you have as much capacity to bring all these students so hopefully they're able to find out something there uh the tailgating scene at Arrowhead is actually set up to be better than what Memorial Stadium currently is. I mean, there's more room for tailgating at Arrowhead, which has become a tailgating hub. So that'll be actually kind of cool. And the future iteration of the Kansas football stadium,

as nice as it'll be in certain areas, the future iteration is not gonna be good for tailgating and parking. You at least will have a bit more of that with the Arrowhead situation. Hopefully it's a good crowd because partially empty big stadiums, those types of settings are actually worse than small close-knit sold-out settings. So for instance, if Arrowhead is filled with 45,000 people, when it can hold whatever it is, 75,000, 72,000 or whatever, that won't be as good of an environment as say, filling a full stadium of

25,000 people. It's the acoustics, it's the setting, it's the way it looks. There's something about it. But if you can get to 60,000, 70,000 in Arrowhead, could you imagine a rocking Arrowhead full for a KU game? And I don't know if you'll quite get that, but a couple of those home games, you might have the opportunity to, and part of it is because the visiting fan base, the Iowa State games and the Colorado games, I think are going to be very interesting. But my biggest concern, you know, in a year where you could win the league, does hurting your home field advantage affect the game results, right? If you don't sell it out, if it is more of a lackluster environment with how spacious it is, since you're not filling it up again, Iowa state's going to bring a lot of fans.

We see what they do with the big 12 tournament. They're going to bring a lot of people down Colorado. That's a close drive. And they're playing in the big 12 for the first time in however many years, they'll probably bring a good amount of fans, especially because there's, there's the support with Deon Sanders and everything like that. But again, just traveling to all of your home games, even though it's a short drive and for what it's worth, I know a lot of times Kansas is like staying at hotels in Kansas City, so maybe it's not that different. But does it make it feel unlike a true home field advantage for players? I just hope the timing of when this had to happen

doesn't have a negative impact in a year where you do feel like you could win the Big 12. In a year, you do feel like you could make the college football playoff. Therefore, for what it's worth, I know Pittsburgh, like the Panthers, they play at the Pittsburgh Steelers Stadium. And they for what it's worth, like I know Pittsburgh, like the Panthers, they play at the Pittsburgh Steelers Stadium and they had a couple of years ago, like with Kenny Pickett, they went to a New Year's Six Bowl game and that didn't seem to bother them. Then again, Pittsburgh University is like actually downtown in Pittsburgh, so they're not having as far travel. I do think a lot of the players are hyped up for this,

though. A lot of the players are super excited to play in a pro stadium, which obviously you would expect to be the case. So I guess this is a really cool opportunity for players to get on that pro field and get in a pro locker room and everything. And that's really cool. I do think it's a cool opportunity for more fans to attend, you know, as, as things get more or as football gets better and you have a smaller capacity stadium relative to some other power five schools, you know, tickets may start getting a little bit pricier because with supply,

there is demand, right? Well at Arrowhead, since there's double the capacity, essentially, I'd imagine there's going to be a lot of cheap tickets. I'd imagine this is going to be a cool opportunity for a lot of fans who, you know, if you don't have a ton of money to spend on tickets, you're going to be able to get to a lot of these games for a lot cheaper than maybe you normally would in whatever the new stadium will end up being in here too. So I think that's cool. It's also a cool opportunity to maybe get, you know, I don't

know if they're going to have openings on club or suite or premium seating for the KU games where you normally would at the Chiefs. That's something we haven't had at KU. That could be a cool opportunity. And obviously this kind of allows you to speed up the process on your stadium, to speed up the construction, to stadium to speed up the construction to maybe make it cheaper in the process because it's not as long and drawn out of the process and maybe have it fully open and ready to go by 2025 I'll be interested to see if KU sells out any of the games in Arrowhead like I said with the Iowa State Colorado games those would be the ones you kind of look to but all things considered this is really cool it's not the most ideal situation I don't

love that it has to happen to begin with, but knowing that it does because you know, you're rebuilding your stadium on the same grounds, you're kind of left with no other opportunity. This is about the best solution I think you could possibly have because there's not, you know, a burgeoning amount of stadiums that are kind of around in the area that you could make this work. All right, let's get to who, when, and where on the schedule is Kansas going to be playing

top three home and away games. Maybe an early schedule prediction for KU on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. First, this episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Happy Super Bowl to all who celebrate, which why wouldn't you be, from FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. If you're like me, Super Bowl Sunday is basically a holiday holiday and it is all about scoring the best seat on your couch. Got to make sure you get there early, grabbing your favorite football snacks, whatever it might be, chicken wings, and placing some super bets. There's so many things you can bet on with FanDuel for you get a dub or two or three or four during the Super Bowl. Not only can you bet on who will win with the money line or the spread with Super Bowl 58,

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When, who they'll be playing, where? Obviously, we answered a bit of that. But where throughout the season in terms of the date and everything for KU this season. So here is the Big 12 schedule if you're watching on YouTube. We'll go over this on audio version. Week one, obviously, Kansas is going to be hosting their FCS opponent with Lindenwood. That's a Thursday night game.

David Beatty's alma mater, I believe. So leave no prisoner. You know, run up the score, please, for all KU fans. A bit of catharsis if they can go out and do that. That's obviously, you know, one that I actually am really interested in. Even though it's an FCS game, I want to see what it's like at Children's Mercy Park. I think there's going to be a lot of cool sight lines. I think it'll be a, even though it's an FCS game, I want to see what it's like at children's mercy park. I think there's going to be a lot of cool sight lines.

I think it'll be a full crowd because it is more limited capacity, which means you're going to have a more into it crowd and a more crowd. Who's like, since there's limited seating, they really want to be there. So I think that'll actually be really cool for that game. And then after that, you're on the road against Illinois and kind of your return game, which is from this past or last year from the return game there. I don't know how good Illinois will be this year. Obviously, they weren't a bowl team

this past season. Jerzon Newton graduates away. I think Brett Bielema is a good coach. I'd expect them to be around bowl eligibility this year. So, you know, should be a tough one on the road. And then you're back at home and that'll be your second non-con game and your second home game, which will be against UNLV. Also at Children's Mercy Park, no Jaden Maieva with UNLV anymore, so you feel good about how that one goes. First conference road game will be a tough one at West Virginia. Now, I do think there's kind of a full-circle moment that can happen there, right? Because you look at KU and where this all sparked

and where this all started for Kansas, you think of Jalen Daniels and the new era comment, and they won that game in overtime. Kobe Bryant picked six to clinch it at West Virginia two years ago when they made a bowl game. And to have that game at kind of the start of your conference play in a season where you feel like you're a Big 12 title contender, West Virginia was good this past season,

though they didn't play any of the top six teams in the Big 12, I think presents you a really cool opportunity. Then after that, you're going to be back home, so kind of just chopping back and forth between some of the home and away games here if you're Kansas. But after that game, you're going to be back home against TCU, which TCU had a down year. Still, I feel like with TCU, they have so much talent

that you feel like they could be good at any point in time. That one would be at Arrowhead. And then you'll be at Arizona State. So first time meeting them on the road. They had a bad year, but they did have a couple close contests. Like they almost beat Washington and stuff. So that'll be interesting what steps they take in year two. Then you have your first of two bye weeks, which is very interesting.

By the way, Arizona State is going to be coming off a bye before you play them on the road. So that could definitely be kind of a trap game for KU, especially if you win your first five, your 5-0, going into the bye week, looking ahead. Arizona State, maybe not a great team. They're coming off a bye. That could be a very interesting spot. But then you have your first two bye weeks, which I know Lance Leipold likes to have them later in the season.

Maybe ideally you'd have the second one or the first one, I don't know, before Kansas State or maybe even one game earlier and then the second one so it's a little more balanced because you do have two buys in four weeks. But then after the buy week, you play Houston at home, which will be interesting. You have the Willie Fritz factor, and he was a candidate for the job when Lance Leipold got it. And then you're at Kansas State. Ideally, you'd have a buy before that, but that'll certainly be a big one. Also weird that that's not the last game of the season. They are making K-State and Iowa State the last game of the season there. So I guess for K-State, like with Farmageddon and KU,

those are both rivalries for them. So I guess that makes sense. So at Kansas State, and then you do have a bye week. That is helpful that you could have very physical rivalry game, and then you're able to come off a bye week to reset, especially since you're playing Iowa State back at home. And Iowa State, you know, they had a good year this past year. That could be a physical football game.

At BYU on November 16th, the following week, is certainly going to be tough because BYU, I know they didn't make a bowl this year. I almost feel like they'll take another step forward and make a bowl next year. They could be a 5-6-7 win team, but that is a very difficult place to play. You'll be in altitude, so that'll be interesting.

And then you come back home, Colorado with Coach Prime. They have all sorts of talent with guys like Travis Scott and you know, you look at the quarterback position with shooter Sanders and everything like that, but obviously things fell apart for them this year. So we'll see what they're able to do in the transfer portal. You feel like they have a high ceiling,

but maybe a low floor. And that could be a very interesting game at the end of November. That'll also be senior day for you at Arrowhead. And then you finish up at Baylor, which Baylor had a bad year. And who knows, maybe by that, that could be a good spot to play Baylor

because right now their head coach, Dave Aranda, is on the hot seat. You play them by the end of the season, maybe he is, you know, people are checked out and something like that. But obviously KU has had their issues with Baylor in the past and playing there. For what it's worth, I think Houston is coming off a bye against Kansas too. So both teams would be coming off a bye coming into that game. But overall, this is a very manageable schedule for KU. Like I look at it on paper right now,

I would say Kansas would probably be favored against Illinois or I'm sorry, Lindenwood. I feel like they'd be favored on the road against Illinois. I guess you never know for sure on the road. Be favored against UNLV. West Virginia one would be interesting if they're favored or not. I know West Virginia brings back their quarterback. I don't know a ton else about the roster right now. TCU as of right now, they'd be favored, but again, they have so much talent. What if they're favored or not. I know West Virginia brings back their quarterback. I don't know a ton else about the roster right now. TCU, as of right now, they'd be favored, but again, they have so much talent. What if they end up being ranked and everything? At Arizona State right now, they'd be favored. Houston right now, they'd be favored. K-State, probably underdogs. And then the rest of the way, maybe you'd be favored. Maybe there's one you wouldn't be, but I mean, they're going to be favored probably in the preseason and the majority of their games

here. So I'll be interested from that notion to see if the Vegas win total over under ends up being really hot. Like, what is it going to end up being here? Is it going to end up – because it was 6.5 this last year, and they sure it's past that. Are they going to adjust? Is it going to be like 8.5, 9.5? If it's going to be like 7.5, I'm going to pound the over, you know?

So when you look at the ranked opponents that KU plays based on, I guess, some of the way too early top 25s, that's part of why this is so manageable. Because they avoid Utah and Arizona. Kansas State is ranked 15th on 24-7 sports way too early. They're 21st on Sports Illustrated, 21st on ESPN, 22nd on Pro Football Focus, and then the just missed column on the Athletics. So they'll be like a top, you know, 15 to 30 team is kind of what the expectation is there okay that's a tough game and you play it on the road and obviously k-state has had your numbers that adds to it iowa state among all those the only one they were ranked in was the athletic where they're 24th they should have a good team too right you play them at home although i guess the worry there is that iowa state makes

that not really a home game for you with them traveling down. West Virginia just missed in the athletic. And then, yeah, Arizona, Utah, and even Oklahoma State, who I didn't even mention, you avoided all three of those schools. And all three were either top 25 in multiple or all of the way too early rankings. In the case of Arizona and Utah, like top 15. For what it's worth in some of those, KU is 18th in the athletic and Sports Illustrated, 21st in PFF, 23rd in ESPN, and receiving votes in 24-7. But yeah, man, it is a very manageable schedule.

So let's get to our top three home and away games that we're most excited for, best games, however you want to view it, coming up on this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. All right, finishing things up with Locked on Jayhawks, the top three home and away games that we're most excited for for KU. Let's start with the home games. Number three, we'll do a reverse countdown, is TCU. It'll be your first game that you're playing in Arrowhead. And I think really when you look at the TCU game, I don't know,

it could go a couple ways. Like I said, TCU is sitting on talent-rich area in Dallas. They were just in the national title game two years ago. Could they bounce back up to being an eight or nine-win team? Absolutely they could. Could they be bad again? I don't know. Maybe they could, right?

But it'll be very interesting in first game in Arrowhead, all that sort of stuff. I think number two is the Iowa State game. Obviously the intrigue of how well is Iowa State going to travel? Is it going to be like a bowl game where it's like a 50-50 crowd or something like that? Is it going to be a sellout? I think that might be your best chance to get that. A big

reason why is because of kind of the visiting crowd there, but also Iowa State should have a pretty good team. Obviously, they had a good year this year, got bowl eligible back again, kind of bouncing back, and Brock, I almost called him Brock Purdy, Rocco Becht was a freshman quarterback for Iowa State this year. You would think he takes another step up kind of in year two. Number one, though, is Colorado for me. Iowa State might end up being a better team than Colorado. I feel like Colorado has more flash. Iowa State might have more substance, but still with Colorado, I feel like there's a higher ceiling there of what they could be. And when you add the Deion Sanders thing, like, I don't know, it's at least intriguing playing them. And then it's also senior day. And you think of how many seniors there are on this KU roster and how many of them have meant so much for the program. I think that certainly

adds to it. And the later you get in the season, if you are going to be a true Big 12 title contender, the closer you get to being like, oh, you know, we have to win this game to make it to the Big 12 title game or whatever. Honorable mention, I will say, though, is UNLV because it's a bowl rematch, especially after how chippy it was. I think Children's Mercy crowd is actually going to be super electric and fun with the close-in environment as far as the away games number three I would do November or October 5th at Arizona State because it's the first time you're playing a new team I think anytime you go on the road for the first time against a team you haven't been a part of the conference and get to experience a new city or you know a new school or some of their traditions, whatever it is.

I think that's pretty cool. And so Arizona State, we'll see how good they are. They had a bad year, but they might be building in the right way. So we'll see. But I find that one very interesting. Same kind of thing here, November 16th at BYU. You haven't been up to BYU yet. You just hosted them this past year.

Very difficult place to play. I think it will be a fun visiting game for people to go to in November because you can go up and maybe go skiing and some things like that. And the BYU fans are very nice. They bring ice cream to the visiting attendees. That's enough for me to be like, hey, I'll go to the game. But they make that a very difficult home field environment. I think that'll be a fun place. And then the number one, though, it has to be October 26th at Kansas State. Just because the rivalry game, it's a game that, you know,

Kansas eventually needs to start winning some of these games against Kansas State. And after the way this past one went, it almost feels like there's an even more renewed sense of Kansas being like, hey, we got to beat them. And then on top of it, like Kansas State is probably on your schedule right now on paper in the preseason, the best team you're going to be playing on this schedule, right? So it becomes even more apparent in trying to win that game. Now, as far as if we're picking the schedule right now, I'm not going to give an exact win total.

There's still so much that can happen with transfer portal and spring ball and injuries and fall camp and everything. But if I'm giving a range, I think it kind of the floor. I mean, I think with the Jalen Daniels situation, that's what scares you most in making picks. If I'm being completely honest, what if Jalen Daniels gets hurt again, right? I think the floor, though, the way I look at it is, even if you had quarterback injuries,

you should be able to win at least seven games with this schedule. But I think if you told me Jalen Daniels is healthy for, I guess, a majority of the season or nine games or ten games or whatever it is, I'd feel like the floor should be eight wins. I feel like the ceiling, realistically, is ten or eleven wins. I think Kansas is not to a point where even if it wouldn't surprise me if they were favored in all 12 games, if things continue to go well, right. But over the course of college football, Kansas isn't, you know, Georgia, where they're going to be beating everybody by 40 points,

like you are going to be susceptible to an upset. So that's why I'd put the ceiling at 10 or 11 wins, but that's a pretty fun conversation to be having. And there's no reason that against this schedule and with how good Kansas is and with how much talent they have, that they couldn't be playing in a big 12 title game if they put in the work and everything comes together and you get a few breaks your way so far this season. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts,

including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the action. We'll be back tomorrow with a KU Houston preview. We also have a KU Houston crossover episode. So plenty to come at you later this week. Make sure you're subscribed anywhere you get your podcast and on our YouTube page.