The 2021 Nebraska-Illinois football game will be played in Dublin, Ireland on the week zero Saturday.

Nebraska has no game scheduled for week 1 that year and might leave it as an off week and schedule a G5 or FCS opponent for later in the season. Illinois has UT San Antonio scheduled for week 1 that year.

Illinois will play 3 Big Ten conference games before October 1st that year. Might be the first time any Big Ten football team has done that.

Cliff Owens @CliffOwens
Are we mad at Ireland now? Can't we just slap a tariff on them instead of this?

Nebraska@Illinois was actually a really good atmosphere this year, considering how long Illlinois has been bad.

This isn't quite Northwestern selling an Ohio State home game to Cleveland-bad, but this sucks for Fighting Illini STH'ers.

(10-14-2019 10:15 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Nebraska@Illinois was actually a really good atmosphere this year, considering how long Illlinois has been bad.

This isn't quite Northwestern selling an Ohio State home game to Cleveland-bad, but this sucks for Fighting Illini STH'ers.

I could get N.D. doing it, but this has epic fall written all over it. Nothing is quite so Irish as Cornhuskers or the Illini? I don't think there will be great interest from either the people of Ireland or the alumni of the two schools. Now if they link it to a tour of the Guinness brewery then maybe.

(10-14-2019 10:37 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(10-14-2019 10:15 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Nebraska@Illinois was actually a really good atmosphere this year, considering how long Illlinois has been bad.

This isn't quite Northwestern selling an Ohio State home game to Cleveland-bad, but this sucks for Fighting Illini STH'ers.

I could get N.D. doing it, but this has epic fall written all over it. Nothing is quite so Irish as Cornhuskers or the Illini? I don't think there will be great interest from either the people of Ireland or the alumni of the two schools. Now if they link it to a tour of the Guinness brewery then maybe.

Looks like the Irish tourism industry is sponsoring this, so maybe they think they can promote tourism from the Chicago area to Ireland.

I assume they are looking at teams in or near metro areas that have the largest number of Americans with Irish ancestry. Penn State has played in Dublin. BC played ND in Dublin once. Doesn't look like Syracuse has played there. An obvious target for the folks in Ireland would be Syracuse's home game vs. Notre Dame in 2022.

(10-14-2019 10:07 AM)Wedge Wrote:  The 2021 Nebraska-Illinois football game will be played in Dublin, Ireland on the week zero Saturday.

Nebraska has no game scheduled for week 1 that year and might leave it as an off week and schedule a G5 or FCS opponent for later in the season. Illinois has UT San Antonio scheduled for week 1 that year.

Illinois will play 3 Big Ten conference games before October 1st that year. Might be the first time any Big Ten football team has done that.

It's part of a five year series starting with Notre Dame - Navy in 2020.

Stay tuned, your team may be next, lol!

The powers that be are marketing the game to new populations. Same reason all of these pro leagues play overseas...to increase their fandom.

Sooner or later, fans over there would get bored with the same game over and over...Notre Dame and Navy. It was basically inevitable that other schools would show up.

Greg Sankey was over there looking at that stadium about a year or two ago...specifically made comments about the quality of the facility on Twitter. He didn't mention any possibility of an SEC game being hosted there at that time, but I wouldn't be shocked if one of our games turns up there before long.

Whether the plan works or not is questionable, but I imagine a host of schools will go over there in the next few years. They won't give up on the experiment anytime soon.

(10-14-2019 02:13 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  The powers that be are marketing the game to new populations. Same reason all of these pro leagues play overseas...to increase their fandom.

Sooner or later, fans over there would get bored with the same game over and over...Notre Dame and Navy. It was basically inevitable that other schools would show up.

Greg Sankey was over there looking at that stadium about a year or two ago...specifically made comments about the quality of the facility on Twitter. He didn't mention any possibility of an SEC game being hosted there at that time, but I wouldn't be shocked if one of our games turns up there before long.

Whether the plan works or not is questionable, but I imagine a host of schools will go over there in the next few years. They won't give up on the experiment anytime soon.

If it's about college football marketing itself overseas, and not about Ireland marketing itself as a tourist destination, then the teams would go to much larger overseas markets. The Republic of Ireland's population is a little under 5 million. Metro London has almost 3 times as many people as the Republic of Ireland, and metro Tokyo has almost 8 times as many people.

No one in Ireland is going to care about either of these teams.

(10-14-2019 03:07 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(10-14-2019 02:13 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  The powers that be are marketing the game to new populations. Same reason all of these pro leagues play overseas...to increase their fandom.

Sooner or later, fans over there would get bored with the same game over and over...Notre Dame and Navy. It was basically inevitable that other schools would show up.

Greg Sankey was over there looking at that stadium about a year or two ago...specifically made comments about the quality of the facility on Twitter. He didn't mention any possibility of an SEC game being hosted there at that time, but I wouldn't be shocked if one of our games turns up there before long.

Whether the plan works or not is questionable, but I imagine a host of schools will go over there in the next few years. They won't give up on the experiment anytime soon.

If it's about college football marketing itself overseas, and not about Ireland marketing itself as a tourist destination, then the teams would go to much larger overseas markets. The Republic of Ireland's population is a little under 5 million. Metro London has almost 3 times as many people as the Republic of Ireland, and metro Tokyo has almost 8 times as many people.

Well, it's both.

There's no chance these schools would be traveling overseas if they didn't think they were getting anything out of it. Ireland is interested in the tourism, absolutely, but no American university is going to stage a game in Dublin just for the fun of it.

For example, a few schools have played in Australia. That nation isn't that populous really, but the opportunity presented itself.

Yes, London is a much bigger market, but that doesn't mean college officials aren't interested in that. It just means they haven't tried it yet or the logistics haven't worked out. After all, London has rolled out the red carpet for the NFL, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll do the same for any football-playing entity. It's entirely possible that Dublin is the closest and most attractive European market they can access at this time. Besides, if you're in Dublin then you're in the EU and I would be surprised if only the Irish population can watch that game.

We have to be cognizant that American football is not super popular anywhere else. Foreign markets might take extra steps for the NFL because it is the premier American football product. That doesn't mean they'll do the same for colleges. College football is to some degree a niche sport even in the US. That is, it's not equally popular across all major American markets. Should we expect major international markets to draw better than those cities? Not necessarily.

(10-14-2019 03:35 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(10-14-2019 03:07 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(10-14-2019 02:13 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  The powers that be are marketing the game to new populations. Same reason all of these pro leagues play overseas...to increase their fandom.

Sooner or later, fans over there would get bored with the same game over and over...Notre Dame and Navy. It was basically inevitable that other schools would show up.

Greg Sankey was over there looking at that stadium about a year or two ago...specifically made comments about the quality of the facility on Twitter. He didn't mention any possibility of an SEC game being hosted there at that time, but I wouldn't be shocked if one of our games turns up there before long.

Whether the plan works or not is questionable, but I imagine a host of schools will go over there in the next few years. They won't give up on the experiment anytime soon.

If it's about college football marketing itself overseas, and not about Ireland marketing itself as a tourist destination, then the teams would go to much larger overseas markets. The Republic of Ireland's population is a little under 5 million. Metro London has almost 3 times as many people as the Republic of Ireland, and metro Tokyo has almost 8 times as many people.

Well, it's both.

There's no chance these schools would be traveling overseas if they didn't think they were getting anything out of it. Ireland is interested in the tourism, absolutely, but no American university is going to stage a game in Dublin just for the fun of it.

For example, a few schools have played in Australia. That nation isn't that populous really, but the opportunity presented itself.

Yes, London is a much bigger market, but that doesn't mean college officials aren't interested in that. It just means they haven't tried it yet or the logistics haven't worked out. After all, London has rolled out the red carpet for the NFL, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll do the same for any football-playing entity. It's entirely possible that Dublin is the closest and most attractive European market they can access at this time. Besides, if you're in Dublin then you're in the EU and I would be surprised if only the Irish population can watch that game.

We have to be cognizant that American football is not super popular anywhere else. Foreign markets might take extra steps for the NFL because it is the premier American football product. That doesn't mean they'll do the same for colleges. College football is to some degree a niche sport even in the US. That is, it's not equally popular across all major American markets. Should we expect major international markets to draw better than those cities? Not necessarily.

What they're getting out of it is money. Probably a lot of money.

I don't know exactly how much. But when Cal moved its schedule around to play Hawai'i in Australia a few years ago, the Cal athletic department said it made "several times" more than they would have made from playing the home game (vs. an FCS team) that they cancelled in order to play in Australia.

(10-14-2019 03:40 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(10-14-2019 03:35 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(10-14-2019 03:07 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(10-14-2019 02:13 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  The powers that be are marketing the game to new populations. Same reason all of these pro leagues play overseas...to increase their fandom.

Sooner or later, fans over there would get bored with the same game over and over...Notre Dame and Navy. It was basically inevitable that other schools would show up.

Greg Sankey was over there looking at that stadium about a year or two ago...specifically made comments about the quality of the facility on Twitter. He didn't mention any possibility of an SEC game being hosted there at that time, but I wouldn't be shocked if one of our games turns up there before long.

Whether the plan works or not is questionable, but I imagine a host of schools will go over there in the next few years. They won't give up on the experiment anytime soon.

If it's about college football marketing itself overseas, and not about Ireland marketing itself as a tourist destination, then the teams would go to much larger overseas markets. The Republic of Ireland's population is a little under 5 million. Metro London has almost 3 times as many people as the Republic of Ireland, and metro Tokyo has almost 8 times as many people.

Well, it's both.

There's no chance these schools would be traveling overseas if they didn't think they were getting anything out of it. Ireland is interested in the tourism, absolutely, but no American university is going to stage a game in Dublin just for the fun of it.

For example, a few schools have played in Australia. That nation isn't that populous really, but the opportunity presented itself.

Yes, London is a much bigger market, but that doesn't mean college officials aren't interested in that. It just means they haven't tried it yet or the logistics haven't worked out. After all, London has rolled out the red carpet for the NFL, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll do the same for any football-playing entity. It's entirely possible that Dublin is the closest and most attractive European market they can access at this time. Besides, if you're in Dublin then you're in the EU and I would be surprised if only the Irish population can watch that game.

We have to be cognizant that American football is not super popular anywhere else. Foreign markets might take extra steps for the NFL because it is the premier American football product. That doesn't mean they'll do the same for colleges. College football is to some degree a niche sport even in the US. That is, it's not equally popular across all major American markets. Should we expect major international markets to draw better than those cities? Not necessarily.

What they're getting out of it is money. Probably a lot of money.

I don't know exactly how much. But when Cal moved its schedule around to play Hawai'i in Australia a few years ago, the Cal athletic department said it made "several times" more than they would have made from playing the home game (vs. an FCS team) that they cancelled in order to play in Australia.

Oh, I don't doubt that they're getting paid for it. They'd have to get paid pretty well just to make the travel worthwhile not to mention the motivation needed to drop a home game. And certainly the tourism board of Ireland will take the opportunity to flood American TV with ads. I'm not disputing that.

But the point remains...why would any school in the US care about tourism in Ireland or Australia? They have no motivation to concern themselves with that.

Let's take bowl games as an example. We all know cities host bowl games in part to generate tourist dollars. We all know they pay the schools flat rates just to show up. They don't pay nearly enough to make the trips worthwhile, but that's a different matter. The point is that the schools play in bowl games for their own reasons independent of why the cities might want to host the games. The schools want exposure to local recruits and air time for a national audience if nothing else.

It's a similar deal for these early season neutral site games. The hosting cities have to make it worth the while of the schools to show up, but the participating schools have their own reasons for wanting to be there.

I mean, almost every decision in college sports today has a financial motivation to it. I can't imagine the powers that be have not considered marketing their sport to international audiences in the same manner that the major pro leagues have.

Buy your Illinois 2021 season tickets!! #OurStateOurTeam

Home Schedule Wrote:UTSA
Charlotte
Rutgers
Maryland
Northwestern
Wisconsin

(10-14-2019 10:37 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(10-14-2019 10:15 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Nebraska@Illinois was actually a really good atmosphere this year, considering how long Illlinois has been bad.

This isn't quite Northwestern selling an Ohio State home game to Cleveland-bad, but this sucks for Fighting Illini STH'ers.

I could get N.D. doing it, but this has epic fall written all over it. Nothing is quite so Irish as Cornhuskers or the Illini? I don't think there will be great interest from either the people of Ireland or the alumni of the two schools. Now if they link it to a tour of the Guinness brewery then maybe.

There are a couple of other teams I can see playing home games in Ireland. Pittsburgh is one( the city has a lot of people with Irish roots), and believe it or not, I can see the University of Georgia as well as Georgia Tech doing it too. Lot of people with Irish roots in Georgia and Alabama too, which leads me to mention Alabama and Auburn also. All of those would make more sense than Illinois- Nebraska, IMO.

(10-14-2019 10:37 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(10-14-2019 10:15 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Nebraska@Illinois was actually a really good atmosphere this year, considering how long Illlinois has been bad.

This isn't quite Northwestern selling an Ohio State home game to Cleveland-bad, but this sucks for Fighting Illini STH'ers.

I could get N.D. doing it, but this has epic fail written all over it. Nothing is quite so Irish as Cornhuskers or the Illini? I don't think there will be great interest from either the people of Ireland or the alumni of the two schools. Now if they link it to a tour of the Guinness brewery then maybe.

(10-14-2019 03:12 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  No one in Ireland is going to care about either of these teams.

WHY???

(10-14-2019 07:43 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(10-14-2019 10:37 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(10-14-2019 10:15 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Nebraska@Illinois was actually a really good atmosphere this year, considering how long Illlinois has been bad.

This isn't quite Northwestern selling an Ohio State home game to Cleveland-bad, but this sucks for Fighting Illini STH'ers.

I could get N.D. doing it, but this has epic fail written all over it. Nothing is quite so Irish as Cornhuskers or the Illini? I don't think there will be great interest from either the people of Ireland or the alumni of the two schools. Now if they link it to a tour of the Guinness brewery then maybe.

(10-14-2019 03:12 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  No one in Ireland is going to care about either of these teams.

WHY???

Because novelty wears off.

(10-14-2019 07:02 PM)DawgNBama Wrote:  

(10-14-2019 10:37 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(10-14-2019 10:15 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Nebraska@Illinois was actually a really good atmosphere this year, considering how long Illlinois has been bad.

This isn't quite Northwestern selling an Ohio State home game to Cleveland-bad, but this sucks for Fighting Illini STH'ers.

I could get N.D. doing it, but this has epic fall written all over it. Nothing is quite so Irish as Cornhuskers or the Illini? I don't think there will be great interest from either the people of Ireland or the alumni of the two schools. Now if they link it to a tour of the Guinness brewery then maybe.

There are a couple of other teams I can see playing home games in Ireland. Pittsburgh is one( the city has a lot of people with Irish roots), and believe it or not, I can see the University of Georgia as well as Georgia Tech doing it too. Lot of people with Irish roots in Georgia and Alabama too, which leads me to mention Alabama and Auburn also. All of those would make more sense than Illinois- Nebraska, IMO.

Illinois has 4x more Irish people than Georgia and probably tenfold compared to Alabama.

(10-14-2019 11:06 AM)Wedge Wrote:  

(10-14-2019 10:37 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(10-14-2019 10:15 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Nebraska@Illinois was actually a really good atmosphere this year, considering how long Illlinois has been bad.

This isn't quite Northwestern selling an Ohio State home game to Cleveland-bad, but this sucks for Fighting Illini STH'ers.

I could get N.D. doing it, but this has epic fall written all over it. Nothing is quite so Irish as Cornhuskers or the Illini? I don't think there will be great interest from either the people of Ireland or the alumni of the two schools. Now if they link it to a tour of the Guinness brewery then maybe.

Looks like the Irish tourism industry is sponsoring this, so maybe they think they can promote tourism from the Chicago area to Ireland.

I assume they are looking at teams in or near metro areas that have the largest number of Americans with Irish ancestry. Penn State has played in Dublin. BC played ND in Dublin once. Doesn't look like Syracuse has played there. An obvious target for the folks in Ireland would be Syracuse's home game vs. Notre Dame in 2022.

Yeah that's probably the biggest play. Aer Lingus and United have direct flights to Dublin, while anyone from Nebraska will probably go there through O'Hare. Unless something dramatic happens with the program the next few years the Illini aren't drawing a sellout or anything against the Huskers, this is a decent way to get some exposure on a week zero.

(10-14-2019 08:01 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(10-14-2019 07:02 PM)DawgNBama Wrote:  

(10-14-2019 10:37 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(10-14-2019 10:15 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Nebraska@Illinois was actually a really good atmosphere this year, considering how long Illlinois has been bad.

This isn't quite Northwestern selling an Ohio State home game to Cleveland-bad, but this sucks for Fighting Illini STH'ers.

I could get N.D. doing it, but this has epic fall written all over it. Nothing is quite so Irish as Cornhuskers or the Illini? I don't think there will be great interest from either the people of Ireland or the alumni of the two schools. Now if they link it to a tour of the Guinness brewery then maybe.

There are a couple of other teams I can see playing home games in Ireland. Pittsburgh is one( the city has a lot of people with Irish roots), and believe it or not, I can see the University of Georgia as well as Georgia Tech doing it too. Lot of people with Irish roots in Georgia and Alabama too, which leads me to mention Alabama and Auburn also. All of those would make more sense than Illinois- Nebraska, IMO.

Illinois has 4x more Irish people than Georgia and probably tenfold compared to Alabama.

Take out an American history book, and look at the history of the colony/state of Georgia. Then do the same for Alabama. I always thought Illinois had more Germans than Irish, but maybe I'm wrong. Illinois just always struck me as a German state.