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Arizona has been in battles with the Jayhawks at Phog Allen Fieldhouse, McKale Center, neutral sites in Las Vegas and the Maui Invitational and the NCAA Tournament. 

Now the Wildcats and Jayhawks can add a memorable football game to the schools' head-to-head matchups in athletics, when KU (5-4) treks to Tucson Saturday afternoon to face UA (5-3) at Arizona Stadium for a "red out" during homecoming weekend. 

The Wildcats last faced Kansas in Tucson in 1966. In the first matchup in 1936, the Wildcats and Jayhawks tied, 10-10. Arizona is 2-3-1 in the all-time series against KU. Nearly six decades later, Kansas is returning to Tucson as a conference opponent.  

"To get Arizona and go to Tucson for the first time, I've always said it's a unique experience and challenging one to see," said KU head coach Lance Leipold. "Coach (Brent) Brennan has done a great job in his second year in establishing his culture and expectations. You can see the improvement of their team. Other than their trip to Ames, they feel like they should be sitting with one loss all year. ... As we met with the guys, they understand the challenge." 

Brennan said the keys for Saturday include winning the turnover battle. The Wildcats have twice the amount of takeaways as Kansas this season — and lead the Big 12 in interceptions.  

"That's something that's so critical when you're playing in these tough games and these tough opponents in this conference," Brennan said. 

Arizona has to win the "physical battle," added Brennan.

"What is that going to look like knowing they're going to run the football and it's going to be physical, and what does that look like on both sides of the ball?"

Additionally, Brennan is advising his team to not make the moment bigger than it needs to be.

"How do we handle the excitement, the moment, homecoming, big crowd, all of that stuff?" Brennan asked. "Can we lock in and play our best football, play fast, play with confidence and make plays when we get the opportunity to?" 

Both teams enter this week with five wins. A win would push the victorious team into bowl eligibility. Kansas could qualify for the postseason for the third time under Leipold, who is 27-32 at KU since taking over in 2021. Before Kansas, Leipold was 37-33 at Buffalo and 109-6 at Division III powerhouse Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Kansas is 5-4 this season, albeit the Jayhawks' five wins are against teams with a combined 17-27 record. 

For Arizona, the Wildcats are looking to become bowl eligible for just the fourth time in the last decade. The Wildcats went to the New Mexico Bowl in 2015, Foster Farms Bowl in '17 and the Alamo Bowl in '23. Similar to Kansas, Arizona's five wins are against opponents with a combined 17-28 record this season.  

We asked Cat GPT — err, Chat GPT — about funny nicknames for Saturday's showdown, as both teams vie to go bowling. Here are some of the results: 

The Desperation Bowl.

The Bowl Dreams Brawl. 

The Almost Bowl.

The Just-Get-To-December Game.

The Eligibility El Clasico.

Becoming bowl eligible "gets to be a talking point just like other things during the year that you guys all cover and write about, but again, it's still going out and preparing to win a football game each and every week," Leipold said.

"They know what a sixth win will do and we gotta do everything we can to make that happen this weekend against a really good football team on the road," Leipold said. "It's going to be a challenge, but the ones that have been here understand what we continue to strive for here. ... It's not a daily talked-about matter, so I don't know what that does. We continue to stress preparation in everything we do and finding a way to get everything done without putting extra pressure on them." 

Ditto for Arizona and Brennan, who said getting to bowl eligibility hasn't been discussed "just because we just focus on us and right now."

"Where we choose to live is a one-week window, and that's what it is for us every single week," Brennan said. "We know we have a hell of a football team coming in here this weekend. They're tough, they're well-coached, they have good players at all of the positions and they play extremely hard. We know this is going to be a fistfight. ... That's really where we stay. Coach speak or whatever, we're in a one-week window.

"That's all we care about, this game, and finding ways to play our best football on Saturday against a very good team from Kansas. That's what we're talking about. How prepared can we be for that moment? I know the outside world is talking about that and all of those things, but the reality is how we play this week."