The 1996 Kansas Jayhawks football team represented the University of Kansas in the 1996 NCAA Division I-A football season. They were coached by head coach Glen Mason, who resigned after the season to become the head coach at Minnesota and played their home games at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas. It was the Jayhawks first year in the newly formed Big 12 Conference. The Big 12 conference was formed by the eight teams of the recently dissolved Big Eight Conference and was joined by Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech, all formally of the Southwest Conference which had dissolved following the 1995–1996 school year as well.