Props to the programs who've already nailed down their 2016-17 schedules -- and are now releasing them. Kansas is the latest, and given KU is a top-three program in college hoops, let's give a look at who the 'Hawks are playing next season.
Forget the opening exhibitions against non-Division I competition. Those are typical tune-ups that don't matter. For Kansas, the season starts on the first possible date of the 2016-17 campaign, Nov. 11 against Indiana in Hawaii for the Armed Forces Classic. Terrific stuff. No team will have a tougher two-game start to the season than Kansas, because the squad will fly from Hawaii to the other side of the country -- and play four days later, in New York, against Duke for the Champions Classic.
KU's start to the season is anyone's guess. It's possible the team could go 0-2, 1-1 or 2-0. IU and Duke will both be very good next season (we've got Duke at No. 1 and Indiana at 12th)
The big thing: Kansas is one of 10-or-so schools that really has a responsibility to schedule in a challenging way, to be a flagship program for the sport and help college basketball from November on by way of aligning itself with nationally relevant games. Bill Self has continually done this at KU, and he's basically neck-and-neck with Tom Izzo as the most ambitious, unafraid schedulers at power programs in America.
"With this schedule, once again we will rank at the top of the toughest schedules in the nation," Self said in a statement. "We'll get our share of frequent flyer miles right off the bat playing Indiana in Honolulu and Duke in New York City. We're playing 10 of our 12 non-league games against teams which went to the postseason last year, including four NCAA teams. This schedule, like in the past, will help us prepare for the always tough Big 12 season."
Here's who KU is set to play next season. The 2016 CBE will include Georgia, George Washington and UAB, meaning Kansas will get two of those teams:
| DATE | OPPONENT |
| Armed Forces Classic (Honolulu, Hawaii) | |
| 11/11 | vs. Indiana |
| Champions Classic (New York, N.Y.) | |
| 11/15 | vs. Duke |
| 11/18 | SIENA |
| 11/21 | CBE Classic (Kansas City) |
| 11/22 | CBE Classic (Kansas City) |
| 11/25 | UNC ASHEVILLE |
| 11/29 | LONG BEACH STATE |
| 12/3 | STANFORD |
| 12/6 | UMKC |
| 12/10 | NEBRASKA |
| 12/17 | DAVIDSON (Kansas City) |
| 12/22 | at UNLV |
| 1/28 | at Kentucky |
It's not the toughest schedule Kansas has faced in recent years, but it's very solid and will probably wind up being top-15 at the worst when compared to everyone else. That road game at UNLV is interesting -- and should be winnable, but road games close to Christmas are always tricky -- and then of course there's Kentucky at the end of January. That's the Big 12/SEC Challenge. This game was inevitable; it's the return after UK went to Phog Allen last year.
The game was great, among the best regular season games I've ever been to, and I'm still pushing for Kentucky and Kansas to arrange an three-year cycle series. They meet in the Champions Classic every three years, and the other two years can rotate as home-and-homes between Lawrence and Lexington.
KU's director of communications notes that Kansas has finished top-five in RPI since 2008. If Kansas can encroach on 30 wins by Selection Sunday, that will almost certainly be true again.
"Three of those times - 2010, 2011 and 2016 - the Jayhawks were ranked No. 1," per KU's press release. "KU's strength of schedule has ranked in the top 10 in eight of head coach Bill Self's 13 seasons, including fifth in 2015-16. In that span, KU has had the nation's toughest schedule three times: 2004-05, 2013-14 and 2014-15."
Self is entering his 14th season at KU. He's 385-83 as Jayhawks coach.
