I'm sure the B1G sees this as a way to "expand their brand." I wonder if they offered this to all the teams in the conference - and Neb and NW were the ones to say "yes" - or if they were targeted for some reason.
Back in 1977, I spent the summer in London for a college program. I was in a pub one night and wound up talking to some guy who had lived in the US for a while. he proceeded to tell me why soccer was a superior game to "American Football." the gist of his argument was that football players are all specialists, while soccer requires all-around athletes. Anyway, I suspect the audience for American Football over there is still somewhat limited.
The audience for American Football here in the UK has grown significantly since the 1970's SON. It started in about 1982 when Channel 4 (a minor free to view channel) showed a weekly NFL highlight show that was basically a week delayed. It proved more popular than I think people expected. I became a Giants fan in 1984 when I first saw LT, Harry Carson, Gary Reasons (later Pepper Johnson) and Carl Banks - still my favourite all-time LB corp. We are at a point now that every NFL Primetime Game (including Thursday Night, Saturday Night, 3 games on a Sunday and MNF) is shown live on the main Sports Channel (Sky Sports Main Event) and gets an audience of several million. We even have a dedicated NFL channel that shows 'Total Access', 'Good Morning Football' and 'NBC Pro Football Talk' every day, even in the off-season, as well as constant re-runs of 'America's Game' a 'Football Life' etc. Pre-Covid we got to a point where the NFL were hosting up to 4 NFL games in London and each of those sell out within hours of tickets going on sale. The average attendance in those games (originally Wembley but now branching out to other stadiums) is much higher than the average attendance for England Soccer home games. The Jaguars play here every year and I think there is ongoing speculation that they may one day relocate to London?
The College Game is not yet as popular as the NFL but is rapidly growing. We get BT ESPN (British Telecom) and that hooks into CBS and ABC too to give us more than 7 live games a week including College Gameday and a 14 hour stretch on a Saturday. It tends to be a bit SEC biased but the B1G gets at least two games a week. We also get every Championship Game (frustratingly apart from the B1G) and 95% of the Bowl Games. We even get College Basketball (see Gopher fans rocking the Barn regularly), Hockey and even Swimming and Diving, Gymnastics and Lacrosse. Most dedicated UK fans have a Pro Team and a College Programme they follow. I've been a Gopher's fan since Brewster's last year and have been in person to TCF twice, the home opener at UNLV and two bowl games (Texas and Outback) in person.
In terms of hosting College games, Ireland has already done a few - the Irish played Penn State a while ago in Dublin (I think) and I'm sure Navy (could have been Army) were there too at one point. I don't think attendances have been that great for the College games in Ireland though - opening week clashes with Gaelic Football finals which is mega-popular over there.
I think over the years the average UK American Football Fan has become more knowledgeable but I concede that the calls at the line of scrimmage are still a mystery to most (including myself despite the fact that I played as a MLB for my home-town team as a teenager). In the early days at the Wembley games people didn't always know when to cheer but the crowd now go silent when the favoured offense is at work and the volume erupts when the opposition are on 3rd down. I think the fact that Madden is a popular Video game over here (I prefer NCAA - can't wait for it to start up again) helps the younger generation in their knowledge as most understand a basic passing tree and can differentiate between a slant, curl, in, out, cross, streak, SLUGO etc. Obviously there are still a majority of people that wouldn't know the difference between a 'Tight End' and a 'Nose Tackle' but I would guess an equal number wouldn't be able to tell you how a Rugby 'Tight Head' differs from a 'Stand-Off' either.
Anyway, for me personally, I think I may go to the Husker Wildcat game if it stays as August 27th because there are direct flights from Dublin to Minneapolis and it would set me up nicely as a warm-up for the Gophers home opener v The Aggies of New Mexico State.
