Kansas football is going to the Liberty Bowl: Opponent, game time, details

The Kansas Jayhawks will play the Arkansas Razorbacks in the 64th Liberty Bowl, which will kick off at 4:30 p.m. Central on Dec. 28 in Memphis.

The Jayhawks were announced for the game by the Liberty Bowl on Sunday. The Liberty Bowl later confirmed Arkansas as the opponent for KU after it was reported by the Action Network’s Brett McMurphy. The game will be televised by ESPN.

This marks KU’s first bowl appearance since the 2008 Insight Bowl. KU defeated Minnesota 42-21 on Dec. 31, 2008, in Glendale, Arizona.

The Jayhawks went 6-6 this past season and 3-6 in Big 12 action. The Jayhawks became bowl eligible with a win over Oklahoma State on Nov. 5.

Before that, Kansas began the year 5-0. Quarterback Jalon Daniels went down in a narrow loss to TCU, which is now playoff-bound. The Jayhawks won their sixth game with Jason Bean quarterbacking the offense, though Daniels did return for the final two regular-season contests.

Arkansas went 6-6 overall and 3-5 in the SEC.

In its regular season finale, Arkansas fell to Missouri 29-27 in Columbia. That game allowed the Tigers to be bowl eligible — and some theorized there could be a Kansas-Missouri reunion in the Liberty Bowl. Missouri reportedly nixed that idea, though the Tigers have disputed that report.

The Razorbacks this season defeated Mississippi (42-27), Auburn (41-27), Missouri State (38-27), BYU (52-35), South Carolina (44-30) and Cincinnati (31-24) and lost to Missouri, LSU (13-10), Liberty (21-19), Mississippi State (40-17), Alabama (49-26) and Texas A&M (23-21).

KU, which is 6-6 all-time in bowl games, lost to North Carolina State 31-18 in the 1973 Liberty Bowl. KU is 2-0 all-time against Arkansas according to the Razorbacks media guide. The teams met in 1905 and 1906.

The 2021 Liberty Bowl was won by Texas Tech, which defeated Mississippi State 34-7.

The Liberty Bowl is sponsored by AutoZone.