EXCLUSIVE: COLLEGE FOOTBALL SET TO RIDE NFL'S COATTAILS TO LONDON IN 2026 WITH INAUGURAL UNION JACK CLLASSIC .

The NFL ignored the criticism and has instead spent the better part of the last 20 years importing regular-season games to London. Now the league sells out Tottenham and Wembley Stadiums several times per season, while last year's Super Bowl broadcasts on Sky Sports and ITV reached a reported 3.4 million unique viewers in the UK. There's even speculation the game itself could be played in London in the future. 

To marketing executives and former college football players Brian Dubiski and Thomas Hensey, who have worked with the NFL in London, the league's UK success story begged an obvious question. 

'Why is no one taking college football to London?' Dubiski, a former Texas Tech defensive back, told the Daily Mail. 'The data and analytics prove that there are roughly 20 million American football fans in the UK, which is a large number. We've got an American football base already aligned over there.'

Their firm took the initiative by negotiating with schools and the elite Big 12 conference to buy one game per season at an undisclosed cost and move it to 86,000-seat Wembley Stadium. Starting with Arizona State-Kansas on September 19, the Union Jack Classic is aimed at meeting the growing demand for gridiron football in the UK, while introducing schools, players and even the sport itself to new fans.

At the very least, it should be more accessible than the NFL's London offerings.

'You know, the NFL sells out every game so quickly and it's hard to even get a ticket to some of these games, right?' Dubiski said. 'And so for us, we just wanted to [find] a sweet spot to where you could still get the same type of amazing hospitality that you get at the NFL games, all the way down to a more affordable entry-level ticket.'

Prices range from £58.75 ($78.78) up to £444 ($594), with some hospitality packages approaching £1,000 ($1,338).

Like Dublin's Aer Lingus College Football Classic, an annual game aimed at promoting American tourism in Ireland, thousands of team fans are expected to cross the Atlantic for the Union Jack Classic.

But unlike its Irish counterpart, the London game hopes to also attract locals unfamiliar with the Arizona State Sun Devils, Kansas Jayhawks and the endearing charms of college football.

To remedy this unfamiliarity, Hensey, Dubinski and partner Rob Yowell are offering American-style tailgating near Wembley, replete with marching bands, cheerleaders and the kind of pre-game atmosphere that's unique to college football.

To remedy this unfamiliarity, Hensey, Dubinski and partner Rob Yowell are offering American-style tailgating near Wembley, replete with marching bands, cheerleaders and the kind of pre-game atmosphere that's unique to college football.

For the uninitiated, college football players and NFL stars are playing the same game. But while the modern NFL has more of a UEFA Champions League feel, college football has the tribalism and camaraderie you might expect at Selhurst Park or Bramall Lane.

That's because the college game has far more history, dating back to 1869 and spending about a century as the sport's pre-eminent platform. 

Ultimately the Super Bowl and the NFL's merger with the rival AFL would turn college football's tawdry younger sibling into America's highest-grossing and most popular league. But the foundation of the sport is rooted in prestigious institutions like Ivy League universities, military academies and Notre Dame, an Indiana Catholic school that still blends the teachings of Jesus Christ with those of legendary coach Knute Rockne.

(One oft-quoted Rockne line might be apocryphal, but still speaks to Notre Dame's ethos: 'Prayers work best when you have big players.')

Even the formation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sprang from wealthy elites' desire to protect America's future businessmen, politicians and military officers from football's inherent brutality.

The NCAA still oversees college football, and all collegiate sports for that matter, but things have changed dramatically on the gridiron. These days, the College Football Playoff (CFP) runs the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), which is more or less the upper rung of the amateur game.

And by the way, 'amateur' isn't really applicable these days. After years of draconian amateurism rules, many of which were flouted by schools, the NCAA now allows players to accept endorsement deals. What's more, colleges can now pay players directly thanks to a $2.8 billion settle in June, making the whole 'student athlete' thing a quaint relic of a passing era.

In 2025, college stars like Texas' Arch Manning and Miami's Carson Beck reportedly earned around $5 million (£3.7m), which is more than all but nine NFL rookie salaries over that same time. And whereas elite players once left school early for NFL riches, many are now petitioning the NCAA for added years of eligibility to capitalize on their superior earning potential at the college level.

In response, coaches, schools, donors and fans have called on the NCAA and legislators to add some structure to the wild-west economy that's arisen.

The relative silence from those bodies has been deafening, but that hasn't stopped the profits. For instance, the Texas Longhorns generated $330 million in 2024, while the national-champion Ohio State Buckeyes hauled in $255 million.

Most of the billions flowing through the sport go to schools in the top four conferences (SEC, ACC, Big Ten and Big 12) in the form of media rights deals, which have turned individual games into multi-million dollar affairs.

Just how much Dubiski and Hensey paid for next season's Arizona State-Kansas tilt remains a mystery due to confidentiality agreements. But costs are only a small portion of this undertaking. There are also endless logistical issues, many of which are more onerous than those faced by the NFL in London.

'You're bringing two teams over from universities here in the States,' Dubiski said. 'It's much different than even the NFL. Right now a travel team of just football players is 105 and then you bring the rest of just what they call the travel team, it's about 180 [individuals] and then that's just really the core football side of it before you start putting others on the top of that.

'It's actually a pretty daunting task.'

Some of that workload is helped by existing networks of service providers that already partner with the NFL, but Dubiski and Hensey aren't just concerned with practices and games. They need to ensure players have a rewarding experience in London or risk turning off potential future participants.

All of this is complicated by the requisite travel, which comes with the potential for jet lag ahead of the following week's games back in the US.

And therein lies the real concern for teams and coaches. As one high-ranking Arizona State football official told the Daily Mail, the experience will only be worth it if players have enough time to both see London and successfully prepare for the game with enough time.

If that delicate balance can be achieved, the source explained, this can become a unique recruiting tool to attract players to participating schools.

There are other measures of success, too, some of which Dubiski and Hensey have already achieved.

'It took us a full year to really navigate the stream on this, to get a conference involved, to get two teams committed to coming, to getting the right venue,' he said. 'So when we talk success, it was that last entire year's work before we announced to really put it all together. And that was a heavy lift, right?'

Then there are ticket sales, which he believes can be buoyed simply by playing at a prestigious venue like Wembley: 'We chose it for a reason.' 

Besides, this is an annual event, and most business ventures don't turn a profit in the first year. So even if they can't break even in 2026, Dubiski sees potential for the Union Jack Classic thanks to partnerships with Wembley and the Big 12, as well as the UK's growing fascination with American football. 

There's even the potential for a future game between the University of Cincinnati, Travis Kelce's alma mater, and Texas Tech, where Kelce's Chiefs teammate Patrick Mahomes went to school. 

'I'm all for putting a Cincy-Texas Tech game in that stadium, and maybe we could have Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes,' Dubiski said. 

And an appearance from Kelce's fiancée Taylor Swift wouldn't hurt either.  

- ALEX RASKIN

SAY HELLO (AGAIN) TO EA SPORTS COLLEGE FOOTBALL THE BELOVED VIDEO-GAME BEHEMOTH IS BACK

Jerry Parson via AP 

 In a Michigan basement decked out in maize and blue, a father sat with his son.

They’d bond over a football video game. One with a story mode that would transport the 7-year-old into a college dorm room, where letters from fans filled his mailbox, the campus newspaper teased a championship and a list of Heisman candidates adorned his computer screen. If he played well enough, his name might even appear there.

It wasn’t real. But who was to say it couldn’t be?

“You know, we’d always joke, because he was a big kid, that ‘Hey, maybe you’re going to be on there someday,’” says the father, Bill Swartout.

Today, more than a decade later, that 7-year-old — Brayden Swartout — is an offensive lineman at Central Michigan, living the story mode in real life.

Countless versions of that game, not made in over a decade, collect dust in basements alongside phased-out gaming systems. It’s the inevitable fate of old discs, gaming cartridges, RCA connector wires and the like. Give it all a good blow, though, and the dust clears to reveal an enduring cultural phenomenon that, in this modern world, is on its way back.

MORE THAN JUST A VIDEO GAME

For a generation of youth, EA Sports' college football games fueled their aspirations in the sport. From the early versions in the 1990s to the immersive experiences in the 2000s that revolutionized create-a-player modes, the games became a must-have for sports and video-game fans.

As they grew more popular, however, something else grew, too: the chorus of voices that said college athletes depicted in the game should be getting paid. It was a notion that seemed preposterous in the student-athlete era. But as opinions morphed, it started to make sense.

Before 2021, college athletes were not allowed by the NCAA to profit from their brand, commonly known as their name, image and likeness — or NIL.

The video-game developer tried for years to differentiate in-game rosters from real-life players. “Quarterback No. 10” remembers this clearly.

“I remember when I was in the game. Obviously in high school and all that you want to be in the game, but then when you get to college you’re in the game, and I’m No. 10 from Baylor, before NIL, and I am No. 10,” Robert Griffin III, one of the game’s 2013 cover athletes and the 2011 Heisman winner, told The Associated Press.

“And that’s my name, ‘Quarterback No. 10 from Baylor,'" he says. “But, I’m like, white with a buzz cut fade and no arm sleeve on my arm and I’m from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. They completely tried to change the character just so they don’t have to pay the guy. Or say, ‘Oh no, that’s not his name, image and likeness, he’s not even the right color.’ But everybody knew who No. 10 from Baylor was.”

Eventually, EA Sports gave up. And so the franchise sat after its last version in 2013, dormant for 11 years.

IT'S BACK, FOR REAL THIS TIME

Society has changed a lot since the 2010s. So has Swartout's basement, now decked out in maroon and gold.

Gamers’ voracious appetites for immersive sports video games have not changed as much. And with the NCAA's decision to allow college athletes to profit from their brand, the time had come.

EA Sports in 2021 announced it would be reviving the franchise. Three years later, the game is scheduled to be released this summer with a full reveal promised in May. Details have been few so far, but players’ names and likeness will be real.

“I personally believe that NCAA football is the greatest game ever made,” Griffin says. “A lot of kids growing up with the game wanted to be able to see themselves grow and develop into those players they were creating.”

EA Sports has offered Football Bowl Subdivision players a minimum of $600 and a copy of EA Sports College Football 25 to be featured in the game. More than 10,000 players have accepted.

The game will seek to differentiate itself from other offerings in the market — sports franchises that have had the advantage of time to evolve. There's a difference, though: None of those have tackled college football.

“Video games, as popular as they were, they’ve just evolved so much based on how society has evolved and having so many different modes and options,” says Nicolette Aduama, the senior associate director of operations at Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society.

OUT WITH THE OLD

EA’s 2006 college football game was monumental in the sports video game realm. It was the first to completely immerse gamers into an athlete’s life. It had a killer soundtrack. Perhaps its only story mode rival in the early 2000s was NBA Ballers.

It also was problematic, including a feature that — like much entertainment from even recent years past — does not stand the test of time well. In the create-a-player’s dorm room, hanging from the corner of the computer screen, was a wallet-sized picture depicting a woman. As the player performed better on the field, the depiction shuffled through presets. The woman’s body type sometimes became thinner; her bust, hair color and smile changed.

“I remember seeing that like when I was a kid and even then I was like, `Why does the girlfriend get more attractive if you win more games?'” says Eli Mouser, 21, of Russellville, Alabama. “I was like, that doesn’t make any sense.”

EA Sports jettisoned this feature in later editions. It added another that had gamers pick a major and keep their GPA up to compete on the field. The developer has made strides in its equity through other games, such as its professional soccer franchise that now includes female players and its newest golf game, which asks gamers for their pronouns when they create players.

“Girls are gamers, too,” Aduama says. “We see it in movies and on TV shows now where people are breaking those stereotypes and we talk about that in our trainings all of the time. It’s about exposure."

EA Sports says it is offering female athletes opportunities to be involved with the game through its ambassador program, which pays athletes to promote it.

“I know one game right now that would certainly blow it out the water, it would be women’s college basketball,” Griffin says. “Caitlin Clark on the cover. You got all the girls over there with Angel Reese at LSU. Like, that game would mop the floor.”

Given the game's aspirational features, it's easy to wonder: When the new version comes out, what preteens will play it, find inspiration and end up on a college football field a decade from now? What dreams of 2024 — embedded in what will surely be the most immersive iteration of the game ever — will fuel paths to athletic success and deliver tomorrow's aspirations in hi-res?

For Mouser, growing up in Alabama as a Tennessee fan was tough. EA Sports’ college football games gave him a space to let out some of that orange in a sea of red. Like Bill and Brayden Swartout, the game also gave him a chance to bond with his father.

“I bother my friends all the time,” he says, calling the virtual world his “Roman Empire.” “They’re like, ‘Dude, you’re not a real football coach.’ And I’m like, ‘This is important to me, all right?’”

- RYAN KRYSKA