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Kansas, Louisville schedule home-and-home exhibitions for 2025, 2026

On3 imageby:Sam Gillenwater•06/03/25•

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Kansas HC Bill Self, Louisville HC Pat Kelsey
Jay Biggerstaff & Jamie Rhodes | Imagn Images

Programs are starting to schedule more and more big-time exhibitions after last season’s preseason and going into this one. The latest one announced will pair two of the biggest brands in the sport against one another this year and next.

Per a release this morning, Kansas vs. Louisville will be on the exhibition schedule for both programs in 2025 and 2026. The Jayhawks will come to the KFC Yum! Center this year on October 24th, with further details to be announced later, while the Cardinals will make the trip to Allen Fieldhouse next year with no date yet set for the game in Lawrence.

This comes as a result of approved rule changes regarding exhibitions back in January. Preseason matchups like this one against other Division I schools used to have to be approved through a waiver process with the proceeds from those games being allocated around. Now, rather than games like this being behind closed doors as they used to be, the NCAA has “eliminate(d) that requirement, and schools can decide how to allocate the revenue generated from these games”.

For example, Kansas played Arkansas last preseason, an ironic rematch as they’d later meet in the opening round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament, with the Razorbacks winning that first one as well at 85-69. That game, though, being under the old rules, had its proceeds go to “benefit(ting) mental health providers and charities within each school’s footprint”.

Kansas holds a slight lead all-time in eleven games against Louisville at 6-5. However, none of those have come since the turn of the century with no in-season matchup between the two in over three decades.

Kansas is entering what feels like a key season for the program after consecutive seasons with their most losses of the tenure under Bill Self, specifically his worst record at KU coming last season at 21-13. The Jayhawks are then undergoing a roster overhaul. Hunter Dickinson, Dajuan Harris, and KJ Adams were out of eligibility while six players entered the NCAA Transfer Portal. They’re then bringing in a trio of transfers and freshman apiece, namely SG Darryn Peterson, while returning players like Flory Bidunga, Elmarko Jackson, and Shakeel Moore.

Louisville is then going into year two, after a very successful year one at 27-8, under Pat Kelsey. That said, the Cardinals are also reworking their roster with eight players departing, six graduating and two transferring. They’ve done so to this point with a trio of transfer guards in Ryan Conwell (Xavier), Isaac McKneely (Virginia), and Adrian Wooley (Kennesaw State), who all rank in the Top-20 overall of On3’s 2025 Top Transfer Portal Players, and four players incoming for their first collegiate seasons, namely PG Mikel Brown Jr.. They’ll then pair those with returners like Kasean Pryor, J’Vonne Hadley, and, pending on appeal, Aly Khalifa.

We’re seeing more and more games come out ahead of tip-off of next season, including some of these big-time matchups in the preseason. That now includes this exhibition between the Jayhawks and Cardinals with them set to meet this year and next.