Why is college football coming to Wembley? The plan to make London a new home for U.S. juggernaut

A college football Saturday is coming -- only this one will unfold more than 4,000 miles from the campuses, traditions and packed stadiums that have made the sport an American institution.

Marching bands, cheerleaders, mascots and tailgating will accompany Kansas and Arizona State at Wembley this weekend as the Big 12 rivals contest the first NCAA Division I college football game in the UK, with around 60,000 fans expected, including approximately 15,000 travelling from the United States.

But for organisers behind the Union Jack Classic, getting the sport to Wembley is only the start.

Brian Dubiski, the event's chairman and CEO, has spent years working to bring the college game to London and believes the city can become its next major international destination.

"Essentially, college football is going to take on the same form as the NFL," Dubiski told ESPN. "Everyone's going to want to play abroad."

Organisers already have a multi-year agreement with Wembley, while Dubiski says there has been interest from other universities and conferences and has ambitions to take games into other European markets.

So why London? What will make the Wembley game different from the NFL games British fans already know? And could the likes of Alabama, Ohio State or Michigan eventually follow Kansas and Arizona State across the Atlantic?

Why Wembley?

While college football is no stranger to playing overseas -- regular-season games have been staged in Ireland for decades, most recently through the annual Dublin-based Aer Lingus College Football Classic -- London has remained conspicuously absent from the sport's international map.

It has, though, become an established destination for American football through the NFL's International Series, with regular-season games played in the capital since 2007. Those continue next month.

Dubiski believes that investment has helped create an audience that is ready for a different version of the sport.

"We chose London because it's number one, the gateway to Europe," Dubiski explains. "It's London. It's iconic. It is historic. Wembley Stadium is iconic and historic on both sides of the pond."

He added: "Our thought process essentially was, why is no one bringing college football over?

"It's American football, but that passionate fan base, that spirited crowd, that tribalism of multi-generations going to the same university and living and dying by your team closely assimilates European football crowds, in our opinion."

The NFL's success in the UK ultimately helped convince organisers that the time was right to try it.

"The growth of the NFL really solidified and spurred us to push forward and go, now is the time," Dubiski said.

What's different about college football?

The basic sport will be familiar to the thousands of British fans who already follow the NFL, but organisers believe everything surrounding the game is what will make the Wembley experience different.

College football is renowned for its marching bands, cheerleaders, mascots, tailgating and traditions, as well as the intense loyalties supporters have to universities which can be passed through generations of the same family.

Dubiski admits that even some established NFL followers in the UK may not appreciate the scale of it.

Asked whether the average British NFL fan understands what makes college football different, he said: "Actually, probably not.

"I have spoken to a lot of journalists that I don't think had a full understanding of American college football either that are avid NFL journalists and fans.

"We've actually attended a few games with a few journalists from the UK, college games, and they were floored by the crowds, the energy, the game itself and how it operates."

The challenge, therefore, is to bring more than just the game itself to London.

"We are picking up even the tailgating aspect and we're sitting it down outside of Wembley," Dubiski said. "We're having pre-game parties, we're bringing the marching bands, we're bringing the cheerleaders, we're bringing the mascots, the drum lines.

"When you start taking all that together, it's going to take people coming to watch it to understand more than likely because I don't think even communicating it through marketing or conversations like this really do it justice."

Why Kansas and Arizona State?

While the Union Jack Classic is designed to showcase college football to a new audience, the game itself is not an exhibition.

Kansas and Arizona State are both members of the Big 12 and the Wembley meeting is a regular-season conference game, meaning the result will count towards their records and could ultimately have implications for the Big 12 title race.

While neither carries the same global name recognition as some of college football's traditional powerhouses, there will be no shortage of NFL pedigree on show. Arizona State had four players selected in the 2026 NFL draft, including first-round picks Jordyn Tyson and Max Iheanachor, while both programmes have continued to produce talent for the next level.

"They both made sense from a football game because the Big 12 Conference -- this is actually a conference game," Dubiski said. "So there's a lot on the line here because both teams are playing one another within the conference."

There is also a wider motivation for the universities to play thousands of miles from home.

"Both of them were wanting to expand their brands globally," Dubiski said. "So you have the game itself, and then you have the institutional side, which [includes] enrollment. International enrollment at universities continues to increase. Everyone's trying to grow that brand."

Arizona State has expanded its presence in London, while Kansas is sacrificing what would have been a home game to play at Wembley.

"There are multimedia rights on the line, broadcast rights," Dubiski added. "There are increasing your brand awareness, increasing enrollment at the university. So when you put all that into one bucket, it really makes sense."

Will 60,000 really attend?

Wembley can hold around 86,000 spectators for American football, but Dubiski says organisers never expected to fill the stadium for the first Union Jack Classic.

Instead, they are forecasting a crowd of approximately 60,000, including around 15,000 supporters travelling from the US between the two universities.

"We're already proving it can work," Dubiski said. "It's done and solidified, all the heavy lifting has happened.

"We're going to have a great crowd. We never expected to sell Wembley out in year one. I mean, that's 86,000 seats."

Organisers have also tried to make the event accessible to a broader UK audience, including families and younger fans, rather than relying solely on supporters travelling from America.

"We've tried to price tickets aggressively," Dubiski said. "We've tried to make it where families of four or more can come, that it's affordable."

Could a college football giant play in London?

Kansas and Arizona State may be the pioneers, but could Wembley eventually attract some of the biggest names in college football?

Dubiski believes so.

Asked specifically whether programmes such as Alabama, Ohio State and Michigan could eventually make the trip, he said: "I think one day those teams will get over."

The difficulty is persuading college football's biggest programmes to sacrifice one of their lucrative home dates.

Many of the leading teams regularly attract crowds in excess of 100,000, with a home game providing a significant economic boost not only to the university but the surrounding community.

"What the real issue is on some of those levels is those stadiums all hold 100,000-plus capacity," Dubiski said.

"So when you start talking about bringing one of those games over, that team has to essentially give up their home game, which means a lot to them in their localised university communities, the cities, from a business and economic standpoint.

"And then, of course, picking up their team and travelling thousands of miles."

But Dubiski believes the attraction of taking college brands overseas will increasingly outweigh those obstacles.

Is this going to happen every year?

That is the intention.

The Union Jack Classic has a multi-year agreement with Wembley to bring college football to London, while Dubiski says there has been interest from other universities and conferences in playing overseas.

And he believes international games will eventually become a normal part of college football, following the path established by the NFL.

"Essentially, college football is going to take on the same form as the NFL," Dubiski said.

"Everyone's going to want to play abroad. It's going to be a common denominator to come over and increase brand awareness, compete on a global stage.

"I think it's going to be very commonplace. We just happen to be at the front end of this, creating it this year, year one to get that started."

The ambitions are not limited to the UK either.

"We are looking to expand outside of the UK and bring other games to other territories in Europe," Dubiski said.

"For us, this is just a first small step."

The Union Jack Classic between Arizona State and Kansas takes place this Saturday, Sept. 19 at Wembley Stadium, London, at 5 p.m. BST (12 p.m. ET). The game is live on DAZN in the UK.