photo by: MultiStudio/University of Kansas

A rendering provides an overview of how a $300 million development project on the east side of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium could take shape. The silver multistory building nearest the stadium is a Marriott hotel. The two red buildings along Mississippi Street would be home to student apartments, with restaurants, retail and office space on the ground floor. An outdoor plaza area is located between the three buildings.

The next year is shaping up to feature some of the most dramatic changes in college sports history, at least since the equally monumental shifts that took place four years earlier.

Not long after rule changes first allowed college athletes to take financial advantage of their name, image and likeness rights, schools are now slated to pay their athletes directly for the first time in 2025 as the result of a pending settlement in the House v. NCAA case.

This dramatic adjustment will be the backdrop to a year of wide-ranging change in Kansas Athletics more specifically. The ongoing construction of the school’s Gateway project, and the completion of its first phase in August, are further redefining the image of KU’s football program, and plans for a second phase that could start after next season recently started to materialize.

Meanwhile, key recruits will arrive on campus in several sports to begin new eras for their particular programs.

Here’s a look at several of the key storylines that will define 2025 in KU sports.

photo by: Missy Minear/Kansas Athletics

Kansas co-defensive coordinator D.K. McDonald coaches during fall camp in Lawrence on Wednesday, July 31, 2024.

How do two new coordinators affect KU football?

When Jeff Grimes took over for Andy Kotelnicki as KU’s offensive coordinator a year ago, the name of the game was schematic continuity. Many of Grimes’ own tendencies and preferences as a coordinator took a backseat to maintaining (and in some ways amplifying) the motion-heavy, highly multiple offensive system that had helped bring KU to prominence during the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Grimes himself frequently contrasted his current situation with past opportunities to take over struggling offenses in which he had engaged in more thorough overhauls. At KU, he had a different objective.

Well, Grimes is gone for Wisconsin after one season and longtime quarterbacks coach Jim Zebrowski is the new OC. While Zebrowski is an internal hire, unlike Grimes, it’s not clear what kind of stamp he might put on the Jayhawks. The small sample size of one 2023 bowl game in which he called plays indicates a fondness for the deep ball, for example, but who knows how matchup-dependent that tendency might have been.

The situation on defense is even more intriguing, as D.K. McDonald has never been a defensive coordinator before, and only for one game in Lance Leipold’s two-decade head coaching career — the 2023 season opener against Missouri State that Brian Borland missed for a medical procedure — has he taken the field without Borland as his defensive coordinator. McDonald coached under three-man-front pioneer Jon Heacock at Iowa State but will lead a defense KU has worked hard to mold into a four-man front. How much freedom will McDonald have to reshape the scheme, and how many facets of it are set under Leipold?

It’s all particularly interesting because KU will look vastly different on both sides of the ball from a personnel standpoint next year. Will that give the new coordinators more license to deviate from what KU has done in the past? Will returning sixth-year quarterback Jalon Daniels’ own strengths and weaknesses wield any sort of influence on Zebrowski’s scheme? Like much of KU’s 2025 outlook, it’s totally unknown at this point.

photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas setter Ellie Moore sets the ball to a teammate during an exhibition match against Drake at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena, on Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024 in Lawrence, Kansas.

How does KU volleyball rebuild?

A memorable, program-elevating senior class of Caroline Bien, London Davis, Ayah Elnady, Bryn McGehe, Toyosi Onabanjo and Camryn Turner, several of whom had been steady contributors to the Jayhawks since 2021, couldn’t make it out of the first weekend in either 2023 or 2024 despite getting consecutive opportunities to host NCAA Tournament matches. This offseason was always going to feature a reset for the Jayhawks’ personnel, even before 27-year head coach Ray Bechard announced his retirement on Friday, adding a level of uncertainty KU has not had to deal with this century.

Now KU must move quickly to get a new coach in place and simultaneously begin to rebuild its roster. As it loses its six seniors — and anyone else who may decide to transfer, especially after Bechard’s departure — KU will bring in two early-enrolling freshmen in Taylor Cook, a 5-foot-11 setter from Melissa, Texas, and Kate Hayhurst, a 6-foot-2 opposite hitter from Eagle, Idaho, and will certainly need to look to the portal for reinforcements.

Key building blocks are already in place in Raegan Burns, who has already started for two seasons as KU’s fearless libero, and Reese Ptacek, the Big 12 freshman of the year at middle blocker. Outside hitter Rhian Swanson attacked well during a midseason string of starts and will be a senior next year, and middle blockers Aisha Aiono and Ellie Schneider have seen sporadic action during their two seasons in Lawrence.

The key to preventing a significant drop-off in 2025 could be the 2024 freshman class, larger than this year’s group even after Zoey Burgess, the preseason freshman of the year whom Bechard once called the “wave of the future,” transferred to Arizona State. Defensive specialist Heidi Devers, outside hitters Kenzie Dean and Grace Nelson and setter Ellie Moore should be in line for substantially larger roles next year after spending a season learning the system and training with their accomplished teammates.

photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas guard S’Mya Nichols yells out in celebration after scoring a basket while being fouled against Washburn Friday, Nov. 1, 2024 in Allen Fieldhouse.

How much excitement will surround the 2025-26 KU women’s basketball season?

First of all, the Jayhawks have an ongoing campaign right now with plenty of reason for optimism. Star guard S’Mya Nichols continues to excel and, as a sophomore, is already playing at a possibly All-American level, her longtime friend and Wisconsin transfer Sania Copeland has proven an incredibly capable complementary piece, shooters like Elle Evans and Brittney Harshaw play off of Nichols well and space out opposing defenses, and freshman center Regan Williams has been ahead of the curve.

But by the time the fall of 2025 rolls around, chances are there will be as much buzz around the KU program as at any point in recent years, with the impending debut of the best group of freshmen the Jayhawks have gathered in recent memory — as head coach Brandon Schneider has said himself.

Jaliya Davis, a 6-foot-2 in-state forward, and Keeley Parks, a 5-foot-11 guard from Norman, Oklahoma, both of whom rank among the top players in the country, spurned marquee programs to pick KU in mid-November. They joined high-upside forward Tatyonna Brown of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and another long guard in Libby Fandel of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, whose recruiting rankings are comparable to Nichols’ out of high school.

Throw in the fact that nearly every key contributor on this year’s team outside of guard Wyvette Mayberry can return next year, and that Schneider and his staff will have a second chance to find a pure post player in the transfer portal if they so choose (after they couldn’t this past offseason), and plenty of eyeballs will be on the Jayhawks next fall. (Even more, incidentally, because of the recent surge in interest in women’s college basketball.)

Just how big of a star is Darryn Peterson?

In October of 2023, KU men’s basketball coach Bill Self declared that with the Independent Accountability Resolution Process behind the program, it was “time to go for the throat” on the recruiting trail.

Just over a year later, Self followed through on that statement in one fell swoop by signing Darryn Peterson, a 6-foot-5 combo guard originally from Ohio who ranks as the consensus No. 3 prospect in the class of 2025.

Peterson is just one piece in a promising group of incoming freshmen that also includes Samis Calderon and imminent early enrollee Bryson Tiller, but Self reserved some of his grandest rhetoric ever for Peterson, calling him “as important as any recruit we have recruited in recent memory” and his signing “​​one of the best recruiting moments that Kansas basketball has had in decades.”

He wasn’t done. In a press conference soon afterward, Self compared Peterson’s potential to that of 11-year-and-counting NBA pro Andrew Wiggins and said Peterson was as complete a player as his age as Self had ever recruited.

The 2025-26 campaign could mark a bit of a shift in identity more broadly as KU says goodbye to program fixtures like KJ Adams and Dajuan Harris Jr. and (in recent years) Hunter Dickinson. Peterson, who averaged 28.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 4.2 steals and 3.0 blocks in the 3Stripes Select Basketball (3SSB) circuit, will likely be the immediate face of the Jayhawks the moment he sets foot in Lawrence.

photo by: MultiStudio/University of Kansas

A rendering shows how a $300 million development project on the east side of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium could look from the intersection of 11th and Mississippi streets.

How does the Gateway project proceed?

The pace of construction on David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium has been such that at this time last year, phase one of the project had commenced just weeks earlier, and by this time next year, phase two may have already begun.

The KU football team will return to Lawrence to open its new-look stadium — or at least 70% of a stadium, as athletic director Travis Goff says, given that east-end construction is pending as part of phase two — with a matchup against Fresno State on Aug. 23, 2025. The convention and conference center in the north portion of the stadium will also open this fall.

In the meantime, the university will look to lay the groundwork for the second phase to get underway in late 2025. As the Journal-World has reported, KU is seeking a diverse array of public financial incentives to help foot the bill for that phase, which besides completing the stadium would also feature the construction of a Marriott hotel (a key complement for the conference center), student housing, retail, restaurants, offices and an outdoor plaza to host events. The two phases of the project are expected to include a combined $759 million in development.

As with any project, there will surely be twists and turns. Fans will likely have their questions about phase two, especially its restructuring of tailgating around the stadium as parking moves exclusively underground, and about the eventual, final capacity of the venue, which has still not been announced and will depend on the size of the east stands.

If KU can make its date and resume construction after the season, many of these questions will need to be answered over the course of 2025.

photo by: Emma Crouch/Kansas Athletics

Kansas head coach Dan Fitzgerald instructs his team during practice at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence, on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.

Rapid fire

• How do roster limits affect KU sports? This is probably too big of a question to be consigned to a single bullet point, but along with the advent of direct revenue sharing from athletic departments to student-athletes, the pending House settlement will replace scholarship limits with roster limits. The effects will be felt in all sports, but a particularly salient one is baseball, which currently lists 39 players on its roster but will only be able to have 34 next year. However, any number of those players could be on scholarship, whereas the program could only use 11.7 scholarships previously. Meanwhile, with the new roster limit of 15 cut down to 14 for the 2025-26 season due to its final pending IARP penalty, the KU men’s basketball team, if it wants to continue with 13 scholarship players and add two-sport athlete Jaden Nickens, will have to cut all of its other walk-ons.

photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas head coach Nate Lie celebrates with the fans after defeating TCU during the Big 12 Tournament final at CPKC Stadium Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024 in Kansas City, Mo.

• What does Nate Lie do for an encore? The KU soccer team exceeded all reasonable expectations in 2024, as after being picked to finish in a tie for 12th, it not only ended the regular season at sixth but won the Big 12 tournament outright. The Jayhawks were ahead of schedule but will face higher expectations from the public and opposing coaches in Lie’s second year at the helm. The good news for KU is that nearly everyone will be back next season with another year to acclimate to Lie’s high-pressure system, and the coach can bring in even more recruits who fit his style.

• Can KU women’s golf make the NCAA Championships? Lindsay Kuhle’s group fell one spot short of a berth in the championships with its sixth-place showing at regionals last year, and has now gone through a historic fall season with back-to-back-to-back team titles for the first time ever. If the Jayhawks can carry that form into the spring, they may be able to break new ground for the program.

• What will happen to the Mass St. Collective? The entity that has long managed name, image and likeness considerations for KU will lose part of its previous purpose when the House settlement is finalized and KU Athletics is able to pay players directly. Mass St. could persist to help facilitate sponsorship deals for student-athletes, but the recent introduction of FLIGHT — an in-house KU sports marketing initiative in partnership with Learfield and agency Walz Tetrick — seems to preempt that potential purpose. In a press release announcing the creation of FLIGHT, Goff said, “We are thankful for Mass Street Collective’s impact on our student-athletes and our programs throughout the first chapter of Name, Image and Likeness. Looking ahead, it is imperative that we continue to adapt with the ever-evolving landscape of college athletics, and the launch of FLIGHT ensures a progressive path forward.”