With the rough outline of its schedule already known, the Kansas football team’s nonconference slate came into further focus on Thursday afternoon when the Big 12 Conference released additional information.
KU will host Lindenwood at Children’s Mercy Park on Thursday, Aug. 29 at 7 p.m., travel to face Illinois on Saturday, Sept. 7 at 6 p.m. and return to Children’s Mercy Park to face UNLV on Friday, Sept. 13 at 6 p.m. Of note, the Jayhawks and Rebels were previously going to play on Sept. 14.
The Lindenwood game is on ESPN+, while the Illinois matchup is on FS1 and the UNLV game gets a prime-time slot on ESPN.
Lindenwood will be playing its first-ever Football Bowl Subdivision opponent after a recent transition from the Division II ranks. Illinois and UNLV are more familiar foes for the Jayhawks, however, given that they played both last season.
KU beat Illinois 34-23 at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium on Sept. 8, then drew UNLV for the Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Phoenix on Dec. 26, in which the Jayhawks won 49-36 for their first bowl victory in 15 seasons.
Later in the year, KU will play its conference home games at Arrowhead Stadium against TCU, Houston, Iowa State and Colorado, while traveling to take on West Virginia, Arizona State, Kansas State, BYU and Baylor.
This is the second year in a row that the Jayhawks will play two early non-Saturday games, after they opened last season with Friday night matchups against Missouri State and Illinois.
KU won all three nonconference games last season and finished with an overall record of 9-4.
Henry is the sports editor at the Lawrence Journal-World and KUsports.com, and serves as the KU beat writer while managing day-to-day sports coverage. He previously worked as a sports reporter at The Bakersfield Californian and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis (B.A., Linguistics) and Arizona State University (M.A., Sports Journalism). Though a native of Los Angeles, he has frequently been told he does not give off “California vibes,” whatever that means.
