I wrote "at best." We should all be concerned about the changing direction of this team.

Sooo disappointing. Looks like another 5-7 season at best. Marshall's three turnovers, inaccurate passing and poor judgement will not lead us to a winning record. The offensive line is ineffective. The defensive line (strong against the run) cannot put pressure on the QB. Simmons made some incredibly accurate throws that he would not have made under pressure. In seven seasons, LL does not have a win over Misery or the Pussy Cats. Hmmmmm. The up and coming coach is at Tulsa.
I feel embarrassed. My school "took the high ground" to get back in bed with it's sworn enemy so that they could stomp us on our home turf. In spite of our mistakes, this was a winnable game and our squad blew it. Where do we go from here. I might not be long before a shiny new, expensive stadium could be empty. I do not see a positive future for this program.

Just win, baby! And they will come.

@kjayhawks2.0 Because they brought in a very successful coach . . . and his highly rated QB . . . and a bunch of players from North Texas.

They were Big Ten refs. There's your answer. No shame is cheating from Michigan. It's more than a pattern.

@rockchalkjayhawk A little late for that!

@kjayhawks2.0 Fancy stadiums don't win championships. I attended a game in Lincoln in the 1990's. What a dump!

@kjayhawks2.0 To win a national championship you have to have a roster of 50%+ 4 and 5-Star recruits. Cignetti had very few. He IS undoubtedly the best coach in college football today.

Michigan is #14@ $47.6 million. See for yourself. If you find other information, please post it.

@crimsonblu22 #44 @ $29.6 million.

Google 2026 NIL Rankings by School

I looked it up! Here are some of the NIL budgets by school.

Guess who is first? Yep. Texas is paying their football players $73.8 million this season. Who is second? Of course, Texas A&M at $62.2 million. Both schools benefit from large oil revenue trusts.

Miami, Oregon and LSU are next. Then USC, and Ohio State (surprising at "only" $54 million). Where did Indiana come from you ask? Well, they are playing their players $53.4 million this year. Their coach obviously knows how to spend it for results.

The first Big 12 team in the NIL payouts is #9 Texas Tech at $52 million, paid mostly by a former player who made a fortune in oil and has bought his way into chairman of their board of regents. Tennessee @ #10 is paying out $51 million.

So . . . of the Top Five in NIL, 3 are SEC teams. The Big Ten has four of the top ten NIL teams. as does the SEC.

Surprisingly Alabama is only at #15 at $47.2 million followed by Kentucky at $47.0 million. Go figure! And Notre Dame is at $46.4 million followed by Georgia at $46.4. Obviously Georgia and ND are doing more with less. UK is way under performing.

The next Big 12 team is #22 Houston at $39 million. Clemson is at $36.1 million. (Dabo doesn't believe in the transfer portal.) Make note: #19 Misery is spending $45.6 million for its players this year. (Almost as much as ND.)

West Virginia is the next highest ranked Big 12 team -- ranked at #29, spending $35.3 million. (Where do the hillbillies from a poor state get the $$$?) And, where is Kansas University? (Surprisingly, IMO) #30 at $34.5 million. (Note: The Slavers are spending $11 million more than the Jayhawks. That buys a lot of talent!)

Conclusion # 1: There is no way 'Hawk fans can expect to compete with the likes of the big spenders who have twice the players budget.
Conclusion #2: Texas Tech should be ranked #1 in the conference every year. They are significantly outspending all other conference schools.
Conclusion #3 KU, virtually tied for third in conference NIL spending, should be performing better than it's record the past two years.
Conclusion #4 You have seen the ruin of college football. This cannot be sustained. If it's not fixed, only a handful of teams from B10 and SEC will compete every year.

Question #1 Is Lance performing based on his NIL budget?
Question #2 Was our timing bad to spend so much on a new stadium when funds are needed to pay players now? Or, is there more to it?

What do you think Jayhawks? Different conclusions? Answers to my questions! I look forward to your thoughts.

Rock Chalk!

Excitement in Lawrence?? I don't mean to be a downer; but with NIL and Portal, I've never been as uninterested in college football in general and KU football specifically as I am this season. We were all excited after Lance's two bowl games . . . thinking we might finally have a big time program. That's not going to happen when when our transfers come from CSU, James Madison, UAB, Chattanooga, even Michigan State, etc., No prognosticator that I've read or heard has predicted us going more than middle-of-the-pack in the conference. I'll just hope for the best. Rock Chalk.

@stoptheflop And he played well in his previous game, too, with a TD and no INTs.

KU beat themselves with ugly errors, mis-throws, and mis-plays. Shouldn't take this away from an excellent season, but the 'Hawks didn't look ready to play.

Thanks for the remembrance reminder. Too bad history doesn't seem important in our schools anymore.

@stoptheflop Agree. Oklahoma fans were respectful and welcoming when we visited. As the game in Norman wound down, I turned to a woman behind me and said, "Why are you so supportive of Coach Mangino?" Her well-informed reply was, "Because Coach Mangino was our offensive coordinator when we won the national championship."

@kjayhawks2.0 For sure. I'm following the 'Hawks and will be cheering for a trip to the CWS. Would be a lot of Jayhawk fans in the stands in Omaha.

@kjayhawks2.0 FYI We didn't have inflation until after the Federal Reserve was created.

Boy, things are really slow on this site . . . so I thought I'd share a story. Back in 1996, UMKC was looking for a new basketball coach. For "political" reasons, they formed a search committee. The committee of 24 had nothing to do with the selection, but it made a good cover. I was on the committee. We interviewed the three finalists: Mark Turgeon, Mike Anderson (who went on to head coach at Arkansas) and Bob Sundvold. Sundvold was the choice of the AD, probably because he had coached under Norm Stewart at Misery and had "taken the fall" for Norm over NCAA violations.

The interview with Turgeon was memorable. I asked what I thought was a great question: "You've been an assistant to three great coaches. What did you learn from each of them?" Turgeon responded as though he had prepared for my question. "Coach Brown is the greatest in-game coach in the game. After almost every timeout, he'd come down to me as ask, 'Turg, what would you have done?' Coach Williams is exceptionally well organized. He taught me how to organize my day; how to organize practices. And Coach Green taught me how to deal with the media." Turgeon was well prepared and had a great interview.
The other great question during that interview was "Coach Turgeon, what kind of players will you recruit?" Turgeon answered, "I'll recruit players who can shoot. I can teach them my offense, and I can teach them how to play defense. But I can't teach them how to shoot."
Very memorable.

@stoptheflop And he dropped a sure TD in the end zone today.
Bean has been traded to the end of the bench in DC behind last year's championship QB and MVP.