Week 0 Dublin game among top NCAA football international stops
DUBLIN (BVM) – When the Nebraska Cornhuskers meet the Northwestern Wildcats for a football game at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, it will be the eighth time two college football programs will play in the city. Given its history as a host for numerous games, including five Division I matchups, Dublin has become a popular destination for teams and their fans. While Dublin is one of the most popular cities for NCAA football in the 21st century, it’s far from the only city college football has played in. Here are the top five international cities to host college football games.
5. Melbourne & Sydney, Australia
While this is combining two cities, when looking at the full scope of Australia’s hosting, they have been one of the more popular countries for college football teams with both Melbourne and Sydney hosting two games since 1985. Melbourne was the first host of games, with a 1985 Western Athletic Conference matchup that saw Wyoming beat UTEP 24-21 in front of over 19,000. In 1987, the WAC returned to Melbourne when BYU defeated Colorado State 30-26.
It took nearly three decades for the NCAA to return to Australia, this time going to Sydney. The city first saw California beat Hawai’i 51-31 in front of over 60,000 fans in 2016. The next year, the Pac-12 came back with Stanford beating Rice 62-7 in front of 33,000 spectators.
4. Toronto
The city of Toronto and its famous Rogers Centre hosted a quartet of bowl games in the late 2000s. At the time, it was the only bowl game to be played outside of the United States and was the first since 1937.
As the site for the International Bowl, which pitted the Big East against the Mid-American Conference, the Rogers Centre saw four contests with the Big East winning each of them. The International Bowl began in 2006 with a 27-24 Cincinnati victory over Western Michigan in front of 26,000 fans. The 2007 International Bowl saw Rutgers defeat Ball State 52-30 in front of over 31,000 spectators while the 2008 International Bowl saw Connecticut beat Buffalo 38-20 in front of a crowd of over 40,000. The final International Bowl in 2009 had Southern Florida beat Northern Illinois 27-3 in front of 22,000.
3. Nassau, Bahamas
The city of Nassau in the Bahamas has played host to, fittingly, the Bahamas Bowl eight times since 2014. The bowl game typically has the MAC go up against Conference USA.
In 2014, the Bahamas Bowl debuted with a 49-48 Western Kentucky victory over Central Michigan in front of over 13,000 people. Over the next five seasons, the Bahamas Bowl saw a 45-31 victory Western Michigan win over Middle Tennessee in 2015, a 24-20 Old Dominion victory over Eastern Michigan in 2016, a 41-6 Ohio walloping against UAB in 2017, a 35-31 FIU win over Toledo in 2018 and a 31-9 Buffalo victory over Charlotte in 2019 all which took place in front of crowds of approximately 13,000.
After the bowl was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it returned in 2021 when Middle Tennessee defeated Toledo 31-24. Expect this game to stay in the college football bowl season for the near future.
2. Dublin
This city in Ireland has become a popular destination for college football programs in recent years. The first pair of games in Dublin came in 1988 and 1989 when Boston College defeated Army and Pittsburgh defeated Rutgers, respectively. After a seven-year absence, NCAA college football returned to Dublin when the Notre Dame Fighting Irish beat Navy 54-27 in 1996.
It took all the way until the 2012 season for college football to go back to Dublin but when it did, the Fighting Irish were fittingly there again, defeating Navy again 50-10. Two more games were played in Dublin since then with Penn State defeating UCF 26-24 in 2014 and Georgia Tech defeating Boston College 17-14 in 2016.
With college football’s return to Dublin for the first time in six years, fans seem to be excited to visit the host city once again–the Nebraska faithful in particular.
Are you kidding me!!!? Best fans in the world. GBR. pic.twitter.com/wgdFbq6tky
— Trev Alberts (@TrevAlberts) August 26, 2022
1. Tokyo
Between 1977 and 1993, Tokyo was an annual stop for college football. The city hosted what was known as the Mirage Bowl, later renamed the Coca-Cola Classic, a whopping 17 straight seasons making it by far the most popular destination for college football programs of all time.
While the game was known as a bowl by name, it was not actually a part of the NCAA’s bowl schedule and instead would just be a late regular season game held in the city. Tokyo used multiple venues over the 17 years of hosting, beginning with Korakuen Stadium which was the host site from 1977-1979, before moving to the National Olympic Stadium in 1980 and staying until 1987, then finishing in the Tokyo Dome from 1988-1993.
Given its nature as a regular season contest and not a bowl game, there isn’t any conference alignment for the contest allowing for many different teams to participate in the event. Programs such as Clemson, Miami, Michigan State, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oregon and Wisconsin played in the country as did Oklahoma State Heisman Trophy-winning running back Barry Sanders whose season ended at the Coca-Cola Classic.
The final game played in the Coca-Cola Classic saw Wisconsin defeat Michigan State 41-20 in 1993. The largest recorded attendance for the event came in 1980 when UCLA defeated Oregon State 34-3 in front of over 86,000 spectators.
