Editing Kansas (section)

====College====
[[File:OutsideOfKansasStadium.jpg|thumb|left|[[David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium]] is the oldest football stadium west of the Mississippi River, and one of the oldest standing football stadiums in the country. Built in 1921, it is home to the Kansas Jayhawks football team.]]
{{See also|List of college athletic programs in Kansas}}
The history of intercollegiate of athletics in the state dates back to 1866, with the establishment of the University of Kansas baseball team, which competed against local area teams and schools in the Kansas State Fair. The Jayhawks baseball team is one of the oldest intercollegiate baseball programs in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |title="Baseball in Kansas, 1867-1940," by Harold C. Evans, Kansas Historical Quarterly, May, 1940 |url=https://www.kancoll.org/khq/1940/40_2_evans.htm |access-date=2025-03-24 |website=www.kancoll.org}}</ref>

The governing body for intercollegiate sports in the United States, the [[National Collegiate Athletic Association]] (NCAA), was headquartered in [[Johnson County, Kansas]] from 1952 until moving to Indianapolis in 1999.<ref>Jim Davis, [http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/1997/06/09/editorial4.html Loss of NCAA headquarters not related to incentives] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170410050947/http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/1997/06/09/editorial4.html |date=April 10, 2017 }}, ''Kansas City Business Journal'' (June 8, 1997).</ref><ref>Sam Epstein, ''Sports Law'' (Cengage Learning, 2013), p. 19.</ref>

=====NCAA Division I schools=====
[[File:Allen Fieldhouse (3301441111).jpg|thumb|[[Allen Fieldhouse]] at [[University of Kansas]] in [[Lawrence, Kansas|Lawrence]].]]
[[File:Eck Stadium Tyler Field.JPG|thumb|Tyler Field in [[Eck Stadium]] at [[Wichita State University]] in [[Wichita, Kansas|Wichita]].]]
While there are no franchises of the four major professional sports within the state, many Kansans are fans of the state's major college sports teams, especially the [[Kansas Jayhawks|Jayhawks]] of the [[University of Kansas]] (KU), and the [[Kansas State Wildcats|Wildcats]] of [[Kansas State University]] (KSU or "K-State"). The teams are rivals in the [[Big 12 Conference]].

Both KU and K-State have tradition-rich programs in men's basketball. The Jayhawks are a perennial national power, ranking first in all-time victories among NCAA programs. The Jayhawks have won six national titles, including NCAA tournament championships in 1952, 1988, 2008, and 2022. They also were retroactively awarded national championships by the [[Helms Foundation]] for 1922 and 1923. K-State also had a long stretch of success on the hardwood, lasting from the 1940s to the 1980s, making four [[Final Four]]s during that stretch. In 1988, KU and K-State met in the [[Elite Eight]], KU taking the game 71–58. After a 12-year absence, the Wildcats returned to the NCAA tournament in 2008, and advanced to the Elite Eight in 2010 and 2018. KU is fifth all-time with 15 Final Four appearances, while K-State's four appearances are tied for 17th.

Conversely, success on the [[American football|gridiron]] has been less frequent for both KSU and KU. However, there have been recent breakthroughs for both schools' football teams. The Jayhawks won the [[Orange Bowl (game)|Orange Bowl]] for the first time in three tries in 2008, capping a 12–1 season, the best in school history. And when [[Bill Snyder]] arrived to coach at K-State in 1989, he turned the Wildcats from one of the worst college football programs in America,<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Looney |first=Douglas |title=Futility U |magazine=Sports Illustrated |date=September 4, 1989 |url=https://www.si.com/vault/1989/09/04/120464/futility-u-kansas-state-winless-since-1986-has-one-claim-to-fame-it-is-americas-most-hapless-team |access-date=October 9, 2019 |archive-date=October 9, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009210357/https://www.si.com/vault/1989/09/04/120464/futility-u-kansas-state-winless-since-1986-has-one-claim-to-fame-it-is-americas-most-hapless-team |url-status=live }}</ref> into a national force for most of the 1990s and early 2000s. The team won the [[Fiesta Bowl]] in 1997, achieved an undefeated (11–0) regular season and No.{{nbsp}}1 ranking in 1998, and took the [[Big 12 Conference]] championship in 2003. After three seasons in which K-State football languished, Snyder came out of retirement in 2009 and guided them to the top of the college football ranks again, finishing second in the Big 12 in 2011 and earning a berth in the [[Cotton Bowl Classic|Cotton Bowl]], and winning the Big 12 again in 2012.

[[Wichita State University]], which also fields teams (called the [[Wichita State Shockers|Shockers]]) in [[NCAA Division I|Division I]] of the [[National Collegiate Athletic Association|NCAA]], is best known for its baseball and basketball programs. In baseball, the Shockers won the [[College World Series]] in 1989. In men's basketball, they appeared in the Final Four in 1965 and 2013, and entered the 2014 NCAA tournament unbeaten. The school also fielded a [[American football|football]] team from 1897 to 1986. The Shocker football team is tragically known for a [[Wichita State University football team plane crash|plane crash]] in 1970 that killed 31 people, including 14 players.

=====NCAA Division II schools=====
Notable success has also been achieved by the state's smaller schools in football. [[Pittsburg State University]], an NCAA Division II participant, has claimed four national titles in football, two in the NAIA and most recently the 2011 NCAA Division II national title. Pittsburg State became the winningest NCAA Division II football program in 1995. PSU passed Hillsdale College at the top of the all-time victories list in the 1995 season on its march to the national runner-up finish. The Gorillas, in 96 seasons of intercollegiate competition, have accumulated 579 victories, posting a 579–301–48 overall mark.

[[Washburn University]], in Topeka, won the [[National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics|NAIA]] Men's Basketball Championship in 1987. The [[Fort Hays State University]] men won the 1996 NCAA Division II title with a 34–0 record, and the Washburn women won the 2005 NCAA Division II crown. St. Benedict's College (now Benedictine College), in Atchison, won the 1954 and 1967 Men's NAIA Basketball Championships.

The [[Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference]] has its roots as one of the oldest college sport conferences in existence and participates in the NAIA and all ten member schools are in the state of Kansas. Other smaller school conferences that have some members in Kansas are the [[Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association]] the [[Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference]], the [[Midwest Christian College Conference]], and the [[Heart of America Athletic Conference]]. Many [[junior college]]s also have active athletic programs.

[[Emporia State]]'s women's basketball team, under head coach [[Brandon Schneider]], who is now serving as the women's basketball coach at the University of Kansas, has seen success as well. In 2010 the team won the NCAA Division II National Championship. Emporia State and Washburn in Topeka share a heated rivalry in all sports, mostly due to the close proximity of both cities.

=====Junior colleges=====
The [[Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference]] has been heralded as one of the best conferences in all of [[NJCAA]] football, with [[Garden City Community College]], [[Independence Community College]], and [[Butler County Community College]] all consistently in contention for national championships.