High school basketball season in Kansas will be extended starting for the 2025-26 season.
The KSHSAA Board of Directors voted Wednesday to allow schools to play 23 regular season games. This increases from 20 regular season games currently in place, excluding the postseason. The Kansas Coaches Association presented the proposal with it advancing to the Board of Directors agenda by the KSHSAA Executive Board. The item was passed with a 36-25 vote.
Emporia High boys basketball coach Lee Baldwin said this a positive towards getting athletes more opportunities to play games.
Emporia High Athletic Director Beau Welch said this will be similar to what KSHSAA approved last year for additional games in baseball and softball.
Emporia High girls basketball coach Taylor Scott said the addition of more games will be beneficial for her program in the near future.
Olpe boys basketball coach and athletic director Chris Schmidt said he hopes KSHSAA can give smaller schools an extra week to get more games in with sub-state play starting earlier than bigger classifications.
Other items recently passed by KSHSAA’s Board of Directors include tennis athletes who can compete in one outside competition during the school season. Events must be approved in advance, and a request must be sent to KSHSAA from the member school. In baseball and softball, an athlete can now participate in 32 total games during the regular season. In girls and boys wrestling, athletes can participate in no more than four events (a combination of double dual, quad, triple dual and/or one-day tournament) that start before 3 p.m. for each gender. This is effective beginning this winter.
