Kansas enters the season in the middle of the pack. That's the whole tension.
- Coverage leans bullish — but with real dissent
- Win total 5.5 — line down since open
- Kansas enters 2025 at No
How past storylines turned out
Kansas's offensive coordinator change has died down — no clear next chapter yet.
How it developed newest first
Feb 4
Kansas signed a top-37 transfer-portal class — 31 additions headlined by Chase Jenkins (QB) from Rice and Roman Pearson (CB) from Ball State.
why it mattersLance Leipold's fifth season at Kansas begins with Chase Jenkins (QB) arriving as the headline addition in a top-36 portal class, following a 5-7 season that underscored the program's long-standing football struggles. ~ our read
Kansas: coordinator change reshaping a unit.
why it mattersLance Leipold's fifth season opens with a 5-7 losing record, but the coordinator change and Jalon Daniels' Heisman buzz signal a program redefining its historic football identity. ~ our read
Kansas enters 2025 rated No. 58 in SP+ (+4.1), down 8 spots from 2024.
why it mattersKansas enters 2025 at No. 58 in SP+ — the 8-spot drop from 2024 puts Leipold’s progress under the microscope after back-to-back losing records. ~ our read
Watch next
The non-obvious thing to track
The non-obvious read on this rating isn't the number — it's the schedule. A team at this level has 2-3 games where the model says they're overmatched, and those are the games that define the narrative. Watch whether the model holds through the first month of the schedule.
~ our read
Rooms tap to switch
The 'the projection is underselling us' read — fans betting the season beats the preview number.
The 'the model has seen the tape' counter — efficiency ratings reward what a program has actually done, not hope.
This event was in 213 of 1989 board posts (11%) over the last 60 days — engaged but not consumed. Fan text shown verbatim, attributed to the community not the individual poster.
The boards ≠ the fanbase: a vocal, self-selected slice.
The range the bull case vs the counter
“Mizzou football news conference after win at Kansas”
“Kansas Football PROBLEMS & POSITIVES from Missouri Loss: Top Takeaways from Jayhawks Week 2”