London is set to host a major college football spectacle this Saturday as the University of Kansas faces Arizona State at Wembley Stadium. The match, branded the Union Jack Classic, kicks off at 5pm and represents a significant step in the international expansion of American collegiate athletics.
Big 12 Conference commissioner Brett Yormark acknowledged that the league is following the trail blazed by the NFL, which has staged 42 games in the UK over the past two decades. This established interest made London a natural choice for the conference to test the appetite for the college game. The goal is to build a consistent presence, with Yormark expressing a desire for annual fixtures to help British fans form stronger connections with Big 12 schools, athletes, and coaches.
International expansion is also a strategic business move for the universities. With top coaches commanding salaries exceeding $13m and massive television revenue flowing from networks like Fox, CBS, and ESPN, global exposure is increasingly valuable. Broadcasters are particularly supportive of these efforts, with Fox planning to host its Big Noon Kickoff show in London for the first time, turning the game into a major media event that resonates both in the UK and back in the United States.
Beyond the professional and commercial incentives, the universities see the trip as a tool for international recruitment and global branding. Several Big 12 institutions already operate overseas campuses, and Arizona State recently opened a London branch in Clerkenwell. By playing abroad, schools hope to market themselves to prospective international students and foster long-term institutional engagement.
For the student-athletes, the experience is described as a unique opportunity. Yormark noted that approximately 90% of the traveling student-athletes did not possess passports before this trip. Prioritizing the educational and life experiences of these players remains a core focus for the conference leadership.
Organizers are optimistic about the turnout, aiming for an attendance of 60,000 spectators. To achieve this, they have implemented family-friendly offers and discounted tickets for NHS staff and education workers. These efforts are intended to exceed the Big 12’s average home attendance of 50,000 recorded last season. Ticket prices are significantly lower than those for standard NFL International Games, a strategy designed to maximize accessibility.
The event is being billed as a full-scale celebration rather than just a football match, featuring pre-game tailgate parties, marching band pep rallies, and a high-energy halftime show. This scale of production is reminiscent of the international growth seen in the 1980s, when college football games were hosted in Japan, Italy, and Ireland. The Dublin College Football Classic, which has drawn roughly 50,000 fans annually for the last five years, even prompted an NFL visit to Ireland last September.
Historically, the college game’s footprint in England has been limited. It has been nearly 40 years since approximately 6,000 fans watched the Richmond Spiders defeat Boston University at Crystal Palace. The Boston Globe remarked at the time that the atmospheric conditions in Richmond were well-suited to the setting in England. Today, however, the ambitions for the conference are far broader, with a focus on globalizing the brand through consistent international engagement.
Kansas volunteered for the initiative, specifically requesting the move of a home game to London, while Arizona State was eager to participate. Both teams have traveled with their large marching bands to ensure an authentic stadium atmosphere, with several thousand fans making the journey across the Atlantic to support their respective squads for what promises to be a career-defining outing. The report also notes that it’s nearly 40 years since 6,000 or so intrigued spectators watched Richmond Spiders beat Boston University in Crystal Palace. “The gray, misty ways of Richmond proved far more compatible in the Land of the Overcast Sky. The report also notes that where 20 years of NFL matches have paved the way for the college game, it’s the other way round in London. The report also notes that versus breaking into a new market that might not have the appetite for the sport or the game, the NFL have played 42 games in the UK so it seemed to be a mature enough market to bring college football here. The report also notes that and twice as many in China and Australia, there have been as many college football games played in Tanzania and Italy (one) as there have in England. The report also notes that the match between Arizona State and Kansas at 5pm on Saturday – dubbed the Union Jack Classic – is an inevitable reaction to the NFL’s work in the city over the last two decades. “We move a little bit behind the NFL,” says Brett Yormark, the commissioner of the Big 12 Conference – a league of 16 of the most successful teams in college sports. The report also notes that “It’s important for the NFL to open up these markets before we do and develop a fanbase.
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