Could Kansas play in College Football Playoff at Arrowhead Stadium? Travis Goff says yes
LAWRENCE — Lance Leipold downplayed the topic of the College Football Playoff recently, during a press conference that largely touched on his new contract.
Leipold, Kansas football’s head coach, alluded to it being way too early to think about something like that. He mentioned the Jayhawks, like every other Division I program, haven’t played their 12 regular season games this year. Considering how thin the margin of error is in the Big 12 Conference, he added, the focus has to be on doing the things every day that got them to this point so they aren’t disappointed down the line.
But just because Leipold doesn’t want to talk about the College Football Playoff right now doesn’t mean there isn’t a plan in place if Kansas gets there. Even though the Jayhawks aren’t playing their home games in Lawrence in 2024, they will be able to host a College Football Playoff game if they earn that. Travis Goff, KU’s director of athletics, made sure to make that known at the same press conference.
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“It’s in the contract, isn’t it? Explicitly? Explicitly,” said Goff, looking out toward some of the people on hand for the press conference. “Not, like, hiding it with other language, like, ‘Hey, how do we talk about December games?’ It’s playoff, Arrowhead, University of Kansas as a host.”
Arrowhead Stadium, which is in Kansas City, Missouri, is where Kansas is going to be playing its Big 12 home games this season. Those follow the non-conference home games the Jayhawks will play at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas. While using those venues could affect the home-field advantage Leipold and company would otherwise have available to them, there’s confidence internally Kansas will be able to make the most of what's in front of them in that regard.
The way the Jayhawks would host a game at Arrowhead Stadium relies on if they are not one of the four highest ranked conference champions and end up as either the fifth, sixth, seventh or eighth team in the 12-team playoff rankings. It’s only that initial round of games that would allow them to host a game, because the quarterfinals and semifinals are going to be played through New Year’s Six bowl games and the championship game is at a neutral site. How Kansas performs in 2024 will be determined in time, but Leipold does have a team with potential.
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Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Could Kansas play in College Football Playoff at Arrowhead Stadium?
