The Kansas Jayhawks are headed to the desert.
Kansas announced Sunday afternoon that the school’s football program had been selected for the Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Phoenix later this month.
The Jayhakws (8-4) will take on UNLV at 8 p.m. central on Dec. 26 at Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The game, which was formally known as the Insight Bowl, will be televised on ESPN. KU won the 2008 Insight Bowl, knocking off Minnesota 42-21 that season.
This marks the second season in a row — for the second time in program history — that the Jayhawks have been bowl-bound.
Last season, KU broke a 14-year bowl drought by facing Arkansas in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis. KU lost that one in triple-overtime, leaving that Insight Bowl in 2008 as the program’s last bowl victory.
Kansas and UNLV will meet for the third time in the series history, as the two teams played in a home-and-home series in 2002 and 2003. Kansas won the most recent meeting in 2003, 46-24, while UNLV won the inaugural matchup in Las Vegas in 2002, 31-20.
UNLV finished the 2023 regular season at 9-4 after losing to Boise State, 44-20, in the Mountain West Conference title game.
UNLV’s best win of the season was probably at Air Force late in the season. The Rebels will head to Phoenix on a two-game losing streak.
Stay tuned to Wave the Wheat for much more, including player reaction, about KU’s bowl fate.
