Dublin set to stage an American football classic

Northwestern University (Wildcats) and the University of Nebraska (Cornhuskers) will face off at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Saturday, 27 August in the first game against each other outside the United States.

The Wildcats and Cornhuskers will bring their bulk, their speed and their power to the Aviva as part of the five-game Aer Lingus College Football Classic series.

The high-profile Big Ten Conference fixture will open the 2022 College Football Season, with some 15,000 US fans and 3,000 European fans expected to travel to Ireland’s national stadium for the game.

Both teams will be bringing the full American football experience to Ireland with pre-game tailgates, pep rallies, marching bands, cheerleaders, and of course a halftime show. The game will also be broadcast live to a US TV audience of 3.5 million viewers.

Teams and their fans can expect Ireland to roll out the ‘green carpet’ and provide a huge welcome, while the event will bring the American football fanfare right into the heart of Dublin.

Travelling fans and locals will have the chance to meet, mingle and sample the match day experience from the perspective of both sides of the Atlantic.

The college teams will be playing for a specially commissioned Waterford Crystal trophy, the perpetual prize for the Aer Lingus College Football Classic. The Keough-Naughton trophy bears the names of two powerhouses of Irish America – Don Keough and Martin Naughton.

The Cornhuskers are one of the most successful college football teams in history, and with such strong ties between Ireland and the city of Chicago where the Wildcats are based, the game is sure to be a huge draw to sports fans in the US, Europe and Ireland, where the popularity of American football is skyrocketing.

The University of Nebraska fans are renowned for taking over stadiums, home and away, with their famous ‘Sea of Red’, and Dublin can expect to see a red spectacle before, during and after the game.

Hospitality packages for the game are on sale now through Corporate.ie, with travel packages available from On Location and game tickets available on Ticketmaster.ie.

The Aer Lingus College Football Classic series was due to start in 2020 but was disrupted due to the pandemic, so there is widespread delight in getting the series back on track.

www.ireland.com