The long, drawn-out saga of the recruitment of Tyran Stokes felt like something out of Groundhog Day. Day after day, moment after moment, the Stokes recruitment would add another piece of information that would make one fanbase happy for that moment, even though nobody knew where he was actually headed.
Stokes would ultimately choose Bill Self and Kansas over Mark Pope and Kentucky on April 28, 2026, ending the dramatic roller coaster of a recruitment. It seemed that a big reason why the class of 2026 No. 1 overall player committed so late was to see what rosters would look like and where he would fit in on them.
Well, both rosters were constructed around a prolific player and had all the pieces in place for him to be a seamless fit into whatever program lands him. The Jayhawks landed him, and Kentucky was forced to pivot or leave the spot open for a player like junior Kam Williams to step into.
Since then, the NBA draft deadline passed on May 27, and multiple elite talents have pulled their names from the draft and entered the transfer portal. Names like Tounde Yessoufou and Milan Momcilovic headlined the group of returning players, and Kentucky landed Momcilovic, the best player in the entire transfer portal, on June 1, giving Big Blue Nation a chance to let out a sigh of relief.
Now, with both Kentucky and Kansas’ rosters fully set, even though some players are still trying to acquire temporary restraining orders for an extra year of eligibility. The two programs with the most wins in the history of college basketball will face off in the annual State Farm Champions Classic. This year’s event will take place in Chicago, Illinois, on Tuesday, November 10, and the Kentucky vs. Kansas game will tip off at 9:30 PM ET/8:30 PM CT, following the Michigan State vs. Duke game at 7:00 PM ET/6:00 PM CT.
We learned the time of the event’s tipoff on Wednesday morning, a sign that we are getting close to the 2026-27 college basketball season. Among the people looking forward to the season, and particularly excited for this game, is none other than Kansas’ Stokes. He took to Instagram on Wednesday following the announcement and left the comment, “Right around the corner.”
With the schedule that Kentucky has lined up for the 2026-27 season, there are storylines throughout. With Louisville, you have your bitter rival, a coach who was hired in the same offseason as you and just spent maybe the most money in the sport on his roster. With North Carolina, you have a school that just replaced their coach with a new one who is recruiting a few of the same players as you in 2027 and 2028. With Indiana, well, it’s another rival. With Kansas, you already have the history with the Jayhawks dating back 70+ years, and now you add this wrinkle to it.
I will be in attendance for this game, as will many members of Big Blue Nation, and we all want to see a big-time win to kick off the season, with this being the first marquee matchup on the schedule.
In recent years, outside of the 2024 game vs. Duke, Kentucky hasn’t fared well in these Champions Classics, so let’s hope 2026 brings a huge win to get the season started!