photo by: AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Kansas head coach Lance Leipold greets Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell, right, before an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021, in Ames, Iowa.

The Big 12 Conference announced details on Sunday morning for the Kansas football team’s pivotal road matchup with Iowa State on Saturday.

The Jayhawks and Cyclones will face off at Jack Trice Stadium at 11 a.m., and the game will be televised on FS1.

KU enters at 5-5 needing to beat either ISU on Saturday or Utah on senior day on Nov. 28 to reach its third bowl game in the last four years under Lance Leipold. Both KU and ISU are 3-4 in league play, but the Cyclones are 6-4 overall and therefore have already cinched up their own bowl eligibility.

KU enters off its third and final open date of the season, following a 24-20 loss at Arizona on Nov. 8. Games after bye weeks have traditionally gone well for Leipold and the Jayhawks, but they bucked that trend earlier in the year with a resounding 42-17 home loss to Kansas State on Oct. 25.

The Wildcats had a bye of their own leading up to that game, just as the Cyclones were also on a bye ahead of Saturday’s contest against KU. They entered theirs on a much more positive note after escaping TCU with a 20-17 victory on the strength of a late punt-return touchdown by Aiden Flora.

It’s been an uneven season for ISU, which started the year with a hard-fought victory over Kansas State in Ireland and jumped out to a 5-0 start but had dropped four straight — Cincinnati, Colorado, BYU and Arizona State — before righting the ship with that dramatic victory over TCU. The Cyclones have been devastated by injuries in the secondary, including season-enders for Jeremiah Cooper and Jontez Williams. Quarterback Rocco Becht has underperformed this year with 12 touchdowns, nine picks and a 59.9% completion percentage.

The Jayhawks have experienced some success in recent years against ISU — namely, three straight wins in three years at three different locations: 14-11 in 2022 at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, 28-21 in 2023 at Jack Trice Stadium and 45-36 in 2024 at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. That third matchup kick-started KU’s run of three straight victories over ranked opponents that got the Jayhawks a win away from bowl eligibility, but they couldn’t quite get over the hump in their season finale against Baylor on Nov. 30, 2024.

Iowa State is a 3.5-point favorite for Saturday’s game, according to the Action Network. The Cyclones will be hosting the Jayhawks for their own senior day, as their season finale is at Oklahoma State seven days later.