LAWRENCE — Kansas football’s accession during the early years of the Lance Leipold era has provided Jayhawks fans with memories that hadn’t been made in more than a decade.

The KU head coach has led the team to back-to-back bowl game appearances, including a win at the Guaranteed Rate Bowl vs. UNLV in 2023. And the expectations have only risen from there.

But in 2024, Kansas could do something it has never done before. The Jayhawks are in contention to win the Big 12 Conference and put themselves in position to earn an automatic bid to the new 12-team College Football Playoff. At conference media days Wednesday in Las Vegas, Leipold highlighted on the ESPNU broadcast how much he supports the expansion from four to 12.

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“I think it’s great,” Leipold said. “I think it’s going to make it a lot more meaningful football games, not just in November like we talked about. They’re all meaningful, and as you know most of my earlier days were at the Division II, Division III level, where there’s an expanded playoff at those levels. And those games mean more, because you’re early in the year and — this new format will play out this way, because you’re going to be playing for home sites. You’re going to be doing some other things. And, again, it gives more people an opportunity and it should be exciting to see.”

Kansas won’t have an easy path to the College Football Playoff. The Big 12’s preseason media poll placed the Jayhawks fourth in the 16-team league, behind Utah, Kansas State and Oklahoma State. Just behind Leipold and company are Arizona, Iowa State, West Virginia and UCF.

Kansas only has to play three of those top eight teams, with trips to Kansas State and West Virginia and a home game against Iowa State. It’s a potentially favorable draw for the Jayhawks, especially considering the Kansas State matchup is a rivalry game. But it also means there will be more pressure on redshirt junior quarterback Jalon Daniels, senior running back Devin Neal and others to live up to expectations they haven’t experienced yet in their college careers.

Leipold also spoke to that on ESPNU. It was one of the first things he was asked about and he's not shying away from it.

“The big thing about it is, we have about 30 seniors, and to see those guys that have gone through the tough time and be a part of this building process — I’m excited for them to have this opportunity. But, again, we can’t — much like everyone we can’t forget what got us to this point. Making sure we take the confidence of the past season or two of success and stay grounded enough to take another step.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas football, Lance Leipold have path to College Football Playoff