The program is classified in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Bowl Subdivision (FBS), and the team competes in the Big 12 Conference.

Other notable former Kansas players include Pro Football Hall of Famers Gale Sayers, John Riggins, and Mike McCormack, as well as All-Americans Nolan Cromwell, Dana Stubblefield, Aqib Talib, and Anthony Collins.

Jim Bausch, who won gold in the decathlon at the 1932 Summer Olympics, was a running back at Kansas and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Kansas played in the first NCAA-contracted nationally televised regular season college football game on September 20, 1952, against TCU.

From 1953 to 1968, the Jayhawks continued to find success on the football field, sharing three conference titles and attending more bowl games, but the team's overall winning percentage during that era slipped.

The losing accelerated during the years 2010 to 2021, during which the team posted a 23–118 record (.163 winning percentage), including two of the three winless seasons in the program's history.

After the turn of the century, Hall-of-Famer John Outland, who played at KU in 1895–1896, returned to Kansas to serve as head coach, but struggled to a 3–5–2 record in his only season in 1901.

Hargiss coached the team to a Big Six championship in 1930, but could not sustain success and was fired only two games into the 1932 season, after the Jayhawks lost at home to Oklahoma, 21–6.

Through the end of Hargiss's tenure in 1932 the Jayhawks football program had registered a great deal of success, with only four of the first twenty coaches at KU suffering losing records.

KU alum Adrian Lindsey was hired by his alma mater as head football coach in the middle of the 1932 season, taking over after the mid-season firing of Bill Hargiss.

In 1939, Gwinn Henry, formerly head coach of the rival Missouri Tigers from 1923 to 1931, was hired to take over the struggling Jayhawks football program.

[21] That year, the Jayhawks finished the season with a 9–2 record, an Orange Bowl appearance (a 15–14 loss to Penn State) and final rankings of No.

[25] Kansas hired Bud Moore, previously Alabama offensive coordinator under Bear Bryant, to replace Fambrough after his first exit from the Jayhawks.

[27] Moore led his team to a 23–3 upset over eventual national champion Oklahoma, breaking the Sooners' 37-game winning streak.

After thrashing Missouri the Jayhawks received a bid to the Sun Bowl, losing to Pitt (who would win the national championship in 1976), giving the Hawks a final record of 7–5.

[27] In spite of dominating rivals Missouri and Kansas State, these struggles, failure to improve facilities, plus lagging attendance, led to Moore's firing as head coach after four seasons.

[32] During Valesente's two seasons as head coach, the Jayhawks compiled a record of 4–17–1 overall, and 0–13–1 against Big Eight opponents – finishing with a winning percentage of .205, the worst in school history to that time (since surpassed by Charlie Weis, David Beaty, and Clint Bowen).

[43] Despite increased optimism from the fans and administration due to the successes of the previous coaching staff, Allen's teams continued the KU football tradition of struggling on the playing field, failing to compile a winning season in five years and finishing 21–35 in that span of time.

While at Kansas, Mangino led the Jayhawks to 19 consecutive weeks ranked in the AP and/or USA Today polls (2007–08), 20 wins in a 2-year period for the first time in school history, set home attendance average records in each of the last 4 seasons (2004–2008), led KU to its first appearance in national polls since 1996 and to the school's highest ranking ever at No.

In November 2009, the recurring issue of Mangino's alleged misconduct towards his players became the subject of an internal investigation by the University of Kansas Athletic Department.

[50] National sports media coverage of this increased already-mounting public pressure on the university to terminate Mangino's employment.

After a prolonged period of negotiations, the university and Mangino's attorneys agreed on the buy-out amount that was large enough to secure his quiet resignation as head football coach in December 2009.

In 2013, the 3–9 Jayhawks ended a 27-game Big 12 Conference losing streak, which had spanned three years, with a 31–19 home victory over West Virginia in November 2013.

On November 4, after a home loss to Iowa State, it was announced that Beaty would coach the final three games but would be fired at the end of the season.

The circumstances of the hiring being at the end of Spring caused Leipold to only have one full month of practice with the team before Kansas's first game in September against South Dakota.

[77] On November 13, the Jayhawks ended a 56-game road losing streak in Big 12 play when they earned a 57–56 overtime victory over the Texas Longhorns.

KU is only 23–90–3 all-time against the Cornhuskers (as of the last game in 2010), and from 1969 to 2004 the Huskers rang up 36 consecutive victories, second-longest in NCAA Division I (only Notre Dame's 43-game streak over Navy was longer).

Quarterback David Jaynes is the only Heisman finalist in program history, losing to Penn State running back John Cappelletti.

During that time, seven head coaches have led the Jayhawks to postseason bowl games: George Sauer, Jack Mitchell, Pepper Rodgers, Don Fambrough, Bud Moore, Glen Mason, and Mark Mangino.

Six coaches have also won conference championships: A. W. Shepard, Hector Cowan, A. R. Kennedy, Homer Woodson "Bill" Hargiss, George Sauer, and Pepper Rodgers.