Fortuna Files: Kansas and Lance Leipold are doubling down on each other. And it seems like a smart bet.
Plus, thoughts on the latest Playoff ideas floated out there by college football's braintrust.
In honor of Leap Day, 29 thoughts on what was a busy Wednesday in college football.
1. Lance Leipold’s amended contract could offer a fresh perspective on good vs. bad situations in an era that has essentially pitted the Big Ten and SEC vs. everyone else. Yes, Leipold was in demand elsewhere this offseason. Yes, he chose to stay in Lawrence. Yes, he is just getting started.
2. Now he will be making an average of $6.9 million per year, a figure topped only by Mike Gundy among coaches who will be in the Big 12 next season. Kansas just finished ranked in the AP poll for the first time in 16 years. Leipold has won 17 games across his first three seasons. For context, the program had won 18 games, total, in the 10 years before his arrival.
3. Kansas has poured in $448 million in investments around the football stadium, which is why the Jayhawks will play their home games next season at Arrowhead Stadium and Children’s Mercy Park. It will be a bit of a chore, but it is one that the university is putting up with in order to turn the football program from good to possibly great.
4. Can the Jayhawks be great? Who’s to say they can’t? They just went 9-4 and won a bowl game during a season in which they were largely left without the preseason Big 12 player of the year, quarterback Jalon Daniels. Moreover, the new-look Big 12, while deep, will no longer have Oklahoma and Texas as major roadblocks.