photo by: Brett Rojo/For The Big 12 Conference

Kansas coach Jennifer McFalls smiles during the game against Houston on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, in Oklahoma City.

In the wake of bringing the Kansas softball team to the NCAA Tournament, head coach Jennifer McFalls has signed a contract extension, KU athletic director Travis Goff announced on Wednesday.

Her contract now runs for three years, with KU holding a fourth-year option to potentially retain her for 2030. This spring’s NCAA Tournament appearance was the first in McFalls’ eight-year tenure and the first overall since 2015.

“Coach McFalls continues to provide strong leadership for our softball program, and we’re very pleased with the progress the team is making,” Goff said in a press release. “Making the NCAA Tournament last season was an important step forward and reflected the culture that Jen and her staff have instilled. With a talented core of young players returning and momentum from recent success, the future is very bright. We are proud of how far this program has come and excited to see its continued growth.”

The Jayhawks went 36-21 overall during the 2026 season, and displayed a high level of consistency during Big 12 play, when they won six of eight series — including one over Arizona State, which eventually came within a game of reaching the Women’s College World Series — and neither swept nor were swept by anyone. They went 14-10 in the league, securing a key 10-1 victory at Oklahoma State in the second-to-last game of the regular season and topping UCF in a 6-5 thriller in the Big 12 tournament to further improve their postseason positioning.

In regional play, KU beat Michigan 1-0 in an extra-innings pitchers’ duel in Norman, Oklahoma, lost to the host Sooners and then fell 12-10 to the Wolverines in an elimination game.

McFalls, who now has a career record at KU of 181-212-1 (.459), did not receive coach of the year honors from the Big 12, but she did get them from USA Today.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue to lead this program,” McFalls said in the release. “We have made significant strides over the last couple of years and I’m hoping to continue the momentum we’ve built, and to be competitive in the Big 12 and throughout the postseason. I am thankful for Travis Goff and (sport administrator) Nicole Corcoran and their belief in my leadership and the ability of our staff to represent Kansas Athletics and positively impact our student-athletes.”

Under the terms of her new contract, McFalls will receive an initial salary of $235,000 that increases by $10,000 each of the following two seasons, with the optional fourth year also set at $255,000. She can also receive incentives for milestones such as finishing in the top four of the Big 12, winning the conference and participating in NCAA regionals.

The Jayhawks lost an influential group of seven seniors at the conclusion of the season, but do bring back a lot of promising young players such as standout catcher Ella Boyer and pitcher Lila Partridge, as well as first-team all-conference first baseman Anna Soles, who will be a senior next season.

KU was more active than usual in the transfer portal, where it added four infielders in Timber Hensley (Texas Tech), Sienna Mayer (North Texas), Jazmin Ramirez (Utah State) and Grace Thompson (Ole Miss). McFalls also hired assistant coach Jason Gwyn and director of operations Bailey Enoch this offseason.

McFalls was originally hired in 2018 after serving as an assistant at Texas and received her first contract extension in the spring of 2023 after a 25-27 season in which KU upset Oklahoma State in the Big 12 tournament. The Jayhawks narrowly missed a postseason bid with a late slide in 2024 and after a lackluster 2025 managed to make it to the tournament this spring, with McFalls acknowledging it took longer than she might have hoped to do so.

“I think this work requires a balance of patience when there are indicators that the trend lines and the trajectory and the commitment and things are good, but then it also requires all of us to challenge ourselves around what are some things that we need to do to adapt,” Goff told the Journal-World in the spring. “And I give Jen a lot of credit and the staff a lot of credit for doing both those things.”