Colorado vs. Kansas
Colorado and Kansas have 71 meetings on file, the first in 1903; officially, Colorado leads 43–25–3; as played, 42–26–3 in the games on file. Over the last 10 meetings it’s even at 5–5, and Kansas has won the last 2. Kansas forfeited the 1960 game. This page counts every game as it was played. Share
2027 at Colorado. As the programs’ Wikipedia articles list them (CC BY-SA).
- Official series
- Colorado leads 43–25–3
- Colorado wins on file
- 42
- Kansas wins on file
- 26
- Ties
- 3
- Earliest on file
- 1903
- Longest streak
- 10 Colorado
- Current streak
- 2 Kansas
- Last 10 meetings
- even at 5–5
- Most recent
- 2024
The series at a glance
| ’0 | ’1 | ’2 | ’3 | ’4 | ’5 | ’6 | ’7 | ’8 | ’9 | W–L | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1900s | 1–2–1 | ||||||||||
| 1920s | 0–1 | ||||||||||
| 1930s | 0–1–1 | ||||||||||
| 1940s | 1–1 | ||||||||||
| 1950s | 6–4 | ||||||||||
| 1960s | 5–5 | ||||||||||
| 1970s | 8–1–1 | ||||||||||
| 1980s | 7–3 | ||||||||||
| 1990s | 8–2 | ||||||||||
| 2000s | 6–4 | ||||||||||
| 2010s | 0–1 | ||||||||||
| 2020s | 0–1 |
- Both ranked
- 3 meetings: Colorado 2, Kansas 1
- Average margin
- 14.1 points; 26 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
- At Colorado
- 25–9 Colorado’s record at home
- At Kansas
- 16–17–3 Kansas’s record at home
- Neutral sites
- 0–1 Colorado first
- Shutouts
- 6
Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.
Games that tell the story
- Colorado’s biggest win1997: Colorado 42, Kansas 6by 36 points
- Kansas’s biggest win1980: Kansas 42, Colorado 3by 39 points
- Upset1995: Kansas 40, Colorado 24Kansas had a 19% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Upset1957: Kansas 35, Colorado 34Kansas had a 20% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Upset1983: Colorado 34, Kansas 23Colorado had a 27% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Ranked showdown1975: Colorado 24, Kansas 21No. 10 Colorado at No. 17 Kansas
- Ranked showdown1995: Kansas 40, Colorado 24No. 24 Kansas at No. 4 Colorado
- Ranked showdown1992: Colorado 25, Kansas 18No. 13 Colorado at No. 20 Kansas
Coach against coach
| Years | Colorado | Series | Kansas |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1948–1953 | Dallas Ward | 2–4 | Jules Sikes |
| 1954–1957 | Dallas Ward | 3–1 | Chuck Mather |
| 1959–1961 | Everett Grandelius | 2–1 | Jack Mitchell |
| 1963–1966 | Eddie Crowder | 2–2 | Jack Mitchell |
| 1967–1970 | Eddie Crowder | 3–1 | Pepper Rodgers |
| 1971–1973 | Eddie Crowder | 2–1 | Don Fambrough |
| 1975–1978 | Bill Mallory | 3–0–1 | Bud Moore |
| 1979–1981 | Chuck Fairbanks | 1–2 | Don Fambrough |
| 1983–1985 | Bill McCartney | 2–1 | Mike Gottfried |
| 1988–1994 | Bill McCartney | 7–0 | Glen Mason |
| 1999–2001 | Gary Barnett | 2–1 | Terry Allen |
| 2002–2005 | Gary Barnett | 4–0 | Mark Mangino |
| 2006–2009 | Dan Hawkins | 1–3 | Mark Mangino |
Head-coach pairings with three or more meetings on file, the series read from Colorado’s side (Ward 2–4 against Sikes). A season split between coaches goes to the one credited with the game.
Both programs through the years
Our Elo rating at the end of each season, a measure of how strong a team was, not a forecast; 1500 is an average FBS team.
Stars of the series
Biggest days
| Devin Neal Kansas | 37 carries, 207 yards, 3 TD | 2024 Rushing |
Biggest days: the week’s best individual games by our big-days rule, from box scores (2004 on).
From the newspapers
1904 · The Topeka state journal, Topeka, Kansas, Oct 17, 1904
1905 · The Topeka state journal, Topeka, Kansas, Oct 29, 1905
1922 · The Morning Tulsa daily world, Tulsa, Okla., Nov 19, 1922
1948 · Roanoke Rapids daily herald, Roanoke Rapids, N.C., Oct 3, 1948
1951 · Evening star, Oct 7, 1951
Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The earliest meetings with a story on file; each game’s page has the full text.
Every game
Every game is listed as played on the field; a game one side later forfeited is marked “forfeited”; the official series above counts them the NCAA’s way.