When Harvard — credited with playing a substantial role in the growth of college football — played McGill University in an 1874 road game in Montreal, Quebec, it didn’t know it’d be setting the roadmap for future teams in the sport.
Iowa State and Kansas State will open the 2025 season with a Big 12 conference game in Dublin, Ireland, as part of the annual Aer Lingus College Football Classic, in Week 0 on Saturday, Aug. 23. It’s one of a surprising number of college football games that have taken place in other countries, dating back to Harvard’s 3-0 win over McGill in 1874.
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Division I college football game have been played anywhere from Canada to Mexico to even Cuba, Japan and now Ireland, which has hosted multiple games at Aviva Stadium in recent years.
Indeed, one of the greatest players ever even accepted his Heisman Trophy win via satellite while playing in the Coca-Cola Classic bowl game in Tokyo.
With that, here’s a look at the history of college football games played in other countries, ahead of ‘Farmageddon’ in Week 0.
History of international college football games
This lookback only includes games with current Division I teams.
College football in Canada
Before American and Canadian football fully separated, it wasn’t uncommon for teams from the United States to travel to or host Canadian universities. In all, 29 American college football games have been played in Canada, including the first 12 international games.
The International Bowl was introduced for the 2006 season, when two teams met at Rogers Centre in Toronto. Cincinnati-Western Michigan, Rutgers-Ball State, Connecticut-Buffalo and South Florida-Northern Illinois met in consecutive years until 2009.
College football in Cuba
It wasn’t until 1907 when LSU defeated the University of Havana 56-0 in Havana, that a team crossed an ocean for a game. LSU-Havana marked the first Bacardi Bowl, which was played from 1907-1946, although there was a 16-year hiatus from 1921 to 1937.
The Bacardi Bowl placed college programs from the deep south against a Cuban university, although one Bacardi Bowl was played between two American schools in Villanova and Auburn, who tied 7-7 on New Year’s Day in 1937.
College football in Japan
One of the most interesting international college football series started in 1976, when Grambling State and Morgan State met in the Pioneer Bowl in Tokyo. Grambling State then played in Tokyo again in 1977, when it took on Temple in the Mirage Bowl.
There were three games played in Tokyo in 1978, as Utah State and Idaho State played their season opener in Japan before BYU and UNLV played the Yokohama Bowl and Temple and Boston College played the Mirage Bowl.
College football bowl games were played in Japan from 1976 to 1993, with the Mirage Bowl changing its name to the Coca-Cola Classic. A plethora of power conference teams played in the bowl game, including USC, Oregon, Nebraska, Kansas State, Wisconsin, Clemson and Stanford.
While the games in Tokyo were called bowl games, they were instead a relocation of regular season games and were not considered postseason games — thus why many conference foes faced off in the series. Barry Sanders, the 1988 Heisman Trophy winner, even accepted the prestigious trophy from Tokyo, as Oklahoma State was preparing to play Texas Tech in the Coca-Cola Classic.
College football games have also been played in Nishinomiya and Yokohama, both in 1978, and Osaka.
College football in Europe, Australia
The first college football game in Australia was played between WAC opponents Wyoming and Texas-El Paso in 1985. Brigham Young and Colorado State later also played in Australia in 1987. College football returned to the continent nearly 30 years later, when California and Hawaii played in Syndey in 2016 before Stanford and Rice did the same in 2017.
American college football has been played in Europe as early as 1976, when Texas A&I – now known as Texas A&M-Kingsville, went 5-0 against Henderson State in five games played in West Berlin, Vienna and Paris. However, the first major college football game in Europe was played in 1988, between Boston College and Army, in Dublin.
The series was then called the Emerald Isle Classic, later called the Shamrock Classic, and has since evolved into today’s name of Aer-Lingus College Football Classic. Notre Dame-Navy in 2012, Penn State-Central Florida in 2014 and Georgia Tech-Boston College in 2016 were also editions of the college football series in Dublin.
The Aer Lingus College Football Classic is the current top series played internationally in college football, with Iowa State and Kansas State set to play in 2025. Florida State and Georgia Tech occupied the slot in 2024, after Notre Dame-Navy in 2023 and Northwestern-Nebraska in 2022.
College football in the Bahamas
Lastly, there’s the Bahamas Bowl, which has hosted college football games as early as 1991 and has hosted games 10 times from 2014-25. The Bahamas Bowl is the first major FBS bowl series between two American teams outside of the United States or Canada since the Bacardi Bowl in 1937.
Top international college football games all time
1988: Oklahoma State 45, Texas Tech 42 (Tokyo)
1979: Notre Dame 40, Miami 15 (Tokyo)
1985: Southern California 20, Oregon 6 (Tokyo)
2025: Kansas State-Iowa State (Dublin)
1993: Wisconsin 41, Michigan State 20 (Tokyo)
2024: Georgia Tech 24, Florida State 21 (Dublin)
1907: LSU 56, Havana 0 (Havana)
1985: Wyoming 24, Texas-El Paso 21 (Melbourne)
1874: Harvard 3, McGill 0 (Montreal, Canada)
The Mirage Bowl, later renamed the Coca-Cola Classic, dominated the top 10 list of best college football matchups outside of the United States, as the series put conference foes against one another on foreign ground.
Oklahoma State lands the top spot after winning a thrilling game over Texas Tech in 45-42. Cowboys running back Barry Sanders, one of the greatest running backs in football history, was awarded the 1988 Heisman Trophy remotely while the Cowboys were in Tokyo preparing for the game.
LSU was the first team to play an international game outside of Canada, defeating University of Havana 56-0, whereas Harvard was the first team to ever play a team in a different country, defeating McGill 3-0 in 1874. Wyoming and Texas-El Paso were the first two teams to ever play in Australia.
The 2025 matchup between ranked conference rivals Kansas State and Iowa State in Ireland should be one of the most-anticipated international games ever, given the College Football Playoff implications.
