College football set to ride NFL's coattails to London in 2026 with inaugural Union Jack Classic
Even by the standards of Britain’s ferociously traditionalist sports fans, the United Kingdom’s resistance to American football is wilting.
For years, stubborn devotees of the ‘real football’ disparaged the foreign sport with a familiar name. Monty Python alum John Cleese, for one, said American football is ‘played like a series of advertising jingles,’ while likening England’s beloved national game to ‘jazz.’
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.