Kansas Basketball Absent From Way-Too-Early 2026-27 Top 25 Rankings

It's far too early to tell how the Kansas basketball offseason will go down with the abundance of players entering the transfer portal. Regardless, it is clear that head coach Bill Self has his work cut out for him on the open market.

Six Jayhawks have already entered their names into the portal over the past week since it opened on Apr. 7. Although it is possible that one or two of those portal entrants return to KU, the roster is going to look entirely different in the 2026-27 campaign.

Given the uncertainty surrounding what kind of group the Jayhawks will put out next year, analysts are understandably concerned about Kansas. That sentiment was echoed in ESPN's Jeff Borzello's first way-too-early top 25 rankings for the upcoming season.

His skepticism of the Jayhawks was evident by leaving them outside his top 25 entirely. They sit behind Tennessee as the hypothetical No. 27 team in the country, listed among his second group of "next in line" teams.

Borzello: Kansas Not One of the Nation’s Top 25 Teams Next Year

There are five teams from the Big 12 included in Borzello's rankings, yet Kansas is not one of them. There is no question that the coaching staff needs to work some magic in the coming weeks.

The expected departures of standouts like Darryn Peterson, Tre White, and Melvin Council Jr. already hurt the team's outlook, but that was worsened by relatively unexpected exits from fellow starters Flory Bidunga and Bryson Tiller. Bidunga will enter the NBA Draft while also testing the transfer portal, and Tiller is analyzing options elsewhere and could potentially even land at Missouri.

Kansas Jayhawks forward Flory Bidunga (40) dunks the ball against BYU Cougars during the game inside Allen Fieldhouse on Jan. 31, 2026. | Evert Nelson/The Capital-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Even much of the bench is transferring out, with longtime second-unit contributors like Elmarko Jackson and Jamari McDowell expected to leave, along with freshmen Paul Mbiya and Samis Calderon. In all likelihood, no players will return if their NIL demands are not met by the university.

Starting from scratch hasn't always worked for Self in the transfer portal era. The team brought back just one player from the previous season in 2025-26, and even he (Bidunga) initially explored his options in the portal.

This is obviously a different era of college basketball than fans are used to and will take time to adjust to. Either way, nobody should put too much stock into way-too-early rankings when more than half the roster has not even been assembled yet. They will start to carry more weight when the calendar flips to May and many of the top transfer options are off the board.

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