Kansas Football: Should the Jayhawks join the Big Ten?

After spending years trapped at the bottom of the Big 12, could Kansas football improve its fortunes by moving to the Big Ten?

The 2017 season could be a great year for Kansas football.

After suffering through 2016 with a 2-10 record, the team’s eighth consecutive losing season, things could be looking up for the Jayhawks.

Returning to lead the defense is Dorance Armstrong.

Armstrong, a 6-foot-4 edge-rushing junior, has already recorded 13.5 sacks in his two seasons in Lawrence. After recording 20 tackles for loss and 10 sacks in 2016, Armstrong could become an even bigger threat to opposing quarterbacks in 2017, and give the Jayhawks their first first round draft prospect since Aquib Talib played for the team in 2008.

Additionally Kansas is also returning defensive tackles Dani el Wise and DeeIsaac Davis, who combined for five sacks and 11.5 tackles for loss last season, and safety Mike Lee, the lone veteran defensive back in the Jayhawks’ secondary.

On offense, the team could be in even better shape.

After having one of the worst overall offenses in college football last season, the team attempted to remedy the situation by hiring former TCU offensive coordinator Doug Meacham.

Meacham, a former offensive coordinator for the TCU Horned Frogs, is responsible for one of the nation’s most prolific offenses from 2014 to 2015, before experiencing a down year in 2016. His ability to design an offense that can spread the field should help to give the Jayhawks their best offensive attack in years.

Especially with an influx of new talent.

In addition to their recruiting class, which ranked 70th in the nation, the team also added four offensive transfers who could pay huge dividends going forward.

Kansas added quarterback Peyton Bender, a three-star recruit who began his career at Washington State, and Octavious Matthews, his teammate from Itawamba Community College. The duo helped lead the Itawamba Indians to a 5-4 record in the International Champions Cup in 2016 and look to take on a similar role in Doug Meacham’s offense in 2017.

The team also added a pair of Alabama castoffs in Daylon Charlot, a speedy four-star receiver from Louisiana, and Charles Baldwin, a 6-foot-5 four-star offensive tackle from Connecticut. While the duo both committed to play for the Crimson Tide in 2015, they both left Mobile after failing to record any playing time in their first respective years on campus.

While Kansas may not have been either player’s dream school, they will be able to contributors to the team from day one and should get every opportunity to succeed at their respective positions.

But even if Kansas is able to return to its mid-2000s relevance, the team may never become a draw for top potential recruits.

While the schools is incredibly successful in basketball, the football team simply gets lost in the shuffle of a fairly pedestrian Big 12 Conference. If Kansas wants to continue its basketball dominance and improve its football team, it may need to move to a more relevant conference.

And a change may in fact be on the horizon.

After flirting with the idea of joining the Big Ten in 2010, rumors have already begun to surface that teams like Oklahoma and Kansas could eventually join the Big Ten in the not too distant future.

While Kansas has been able to consistently draw a top-five recruiting class in basketball and win the Big 12 every year, it does not face much competition from its conference opponents. Joining the Big Ten would not only help to improve the Jayhawks strength of schedule, but it would also give the conference a true basketball powerhouse.

From a football standpoint Kansas joining the Big Ten would be all gravy.

The team would be able to increase its TV earnings extensively. Five years after leaving the Big 12 for the Big Ten, Nebraska has seen it’s conference revenue spike from $9 million in 2010 to an astonishing $40-$50 million in 2016.

While Kansas hasn’t been nearly as successful on the field as Nebraska was when they joined the Big Ten in 2011, having such a substantial increase in football revenue should help to restore the Jayhawks’ program to its Mark Mangino era relevance.

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The 2017 season could be a turning point for the Jayhawks’ football program. After amassing a dismal 5-65 record over the last eight seasons, the addition of offensive coordinator Doug Meacham and a plethora of talented transfers could help to turn the tides in Kansas’ favor. But if Kansas wants to truly return to its former glories on the field, it may need to consider a change of conference.

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