Kansas closer Boede Rahe left nothing to the imagination last week when he talked about his excitement over what lies ahead.
“I think it’s the best time of the year,” Rahe told reporters before the team went to BYU to clinch the Big 12 regular season title. “We're getting done with classes, it's just baseball season now, so putting all our focus into everything that we got. It's the best time of the year. Postseason baseball. Let's get into it.”
The Jayhawks will do just that later this week, but unlike eight other Big 12 teams, they’ll have to wait a few days.
Seeded first in the 12-team Big 12 tournament in Surprise, Arizona, the Jayhawks received one of four double byes and will be required to wait until Thursday to open play in the single-elimination tournament.
The double bye immediately moves Kansas — along with No. 2 West Virginia, No. 3 Arizona State and No. 4 UCF — into the quarterfinals, where the Jayhawks will face either No. 8 Baylor, No. 9 BYU or No. 12 Texas Tech at 2:30 p.m. (central) Thursday in their tourney opener.
A win there would move KU into the semifinals at 5:30 p.m. (central) on Friday and the championship game is slated for 5:30 p.m. (central) on Saturday.
All four quarterfinal games will be televised on ESPNU, with the semifinal matchups being shown via ESPN+. The Big 12 title game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
Kansas got here with a 39-16 regular season that saw the Jayhawks finish 22-8 in Big 12 play and rip off two double-digit winning streaks, at one point winning 27 of 30 games.
KU won the Big 12 title outright by a game over West Virginia, giving the school its first ever Big 12 regular season title — Ritch Price’s Jayhawks won the Big 12 tournament in 2006 — and first regular season conference title of any kind since 1949.
The Jayhawks are very much in the mix to host an NCAA Tournament regional later this month — that, too, would be a program first — but may need to win at least one game in Arizona this week to seal the deal.
KU entered the week ranked No. 13 and No. 14 in the two major college baseball polls and with an RPI of 20. WarrenNolan.com, which tracks college baseball RPI rankings live throughout each season has KU at No. 21 this week.
Sixteen teams will host regionals when the NCAA Tournament gets started later this month, and at least a few of the major projections have the Jayhawks on that list of 16, including Baseball America, On3 and D1Baseball.com.
The Jayhawks’ resume is strong as is. They won the Big 12. They have 18 wins over Quad 1 and Quad 2 opponents. They won a school-record 22 conference games and also won a school-record 8 conference series showdowns.
Winning at all — or winning it all — in Arizona will almost certainly solidify KU’s hopes of hosting three other teams for a four-team, double-elimination regional later this month.
After that, it’s on to the Super Regionals, where 16 teams square off in eight best-of-three series, with the winners heading to Omaha for the College World Series, June 12-22 at Charles Schwab Field, where KU played Creighton in a non-conference game earlier this season.
Here’s a look at the schedule for this week’s Big 12 tournament, which will be followed by the 2026 NCAA Tournament Selection Show at 11 a.m. (central) on Monday, May 25 on ESPN2.
Tuesday, May 19
Game 1 – No. 9 BYU vs. No. 12 Texas Tech – 5:30 p.m. – ESPN+
Game 2 – No. 10 Utah vs. No. 11 Kansas State – 9 p.m. – ESPN+
Wednesday, May 20
Game 3 – No. 8 Baylor vs. Game 1 winner– 5:30 p.m. – ESPN+
Game 4 – No. 7 TCU vs. Game 2 winner – 9 p.m. – ESPN+
Thursday, May 21
Game 5 – No. 4 UCF vs. No. 5 Oklahoma State – 10 a.m. – ESPNU
Game 6 – No. 1 Kansas vs. Game 3 winner – 1:30 p.m. – ESPNU
Game 7 – No. 2 West Virginia vs. Game 4 Winner – 5:30 p.m. – ESPNU
Game 8 – No. 3 Arizona State vs. No. 6 Cincinnati – 9 p.m. – ESPNU
Friday, May 22
Game 9 – Game 5 Winner vs. Game 6 Winner – 5:30 p.m. – ESPN+
Game 10 – Game 7 Winner vs. Game 8 Winner – 9 p.m. – ESPN+
Saturday, May 23
Game 11 – Championship Game – 5:30 p.m. – ESPN2
All times listed in Central time.
— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com
