Nebraska vs. Illinois in Ireland to open 2021 season
Oh, those poor, long-suffering Irish...
October 14th, 2019 at 11:16 AM ^
Potato peeling should make a nice chance of pace for the corn huskers
October 14th, 2019 at 11:19 AM ^
Eekk.....apologizes in advance to Ireland.
October 14th, 2019 at 1:20 PM ^
boy are the Irish in for a surprise..... by half time they'll be convinced that it was an English setup.
October 14th, 2019 at 11:20 AM ^
So much for Michigan in Ireland in 2021...
I am pleased with this development.
October 14th, 2019 at 1:33 PM ^
Presumably Nebraska was picked in our place? I have to imagine the Big Ten wanted this bad
October 14th, 2019 at 11:21 AM ^
When I think of Ireland, I think of Illinois football.
October 14th, 2019 at 11:50 AM ^
Fighting Irellini
October 14th, 2019 at 12:14 PM ^
Figthing Irellini, I think is how it is.
October 14th, 2019 at 12:47 PM ^
They probably have more fans in Ireland vs. Urbana-Champaign area.
October 14th, 2019 at 11:22 AM ^
Yeah, that Nebraska "Brand" will really benefit from the handful of Irish fans it gains.
selling jerseys in Dublin would be a good start
October 14th, 2019 at 12:47 PM ^
Will it even gain any Irish fans? The crowd will be 99.9% travelers and expats. And out of that 0.1% of Irish people that attend out of curiosity, how many will become "fans" of either team? It might be literally a handful. Like able to count them on one hand. Optimistically.
October 14th, 2019 at 11:24 AM ^
I would've love to be a fly on the wall of the meeting that came up with the idea of starting the season pairing two teams with absolutely zero ties in any way to a foreign country and putting the game there.
It just has to be one of those situations where the boss is a complete moron but won't tolerate any opposition to his "wonderful" ideas so any amount of stupidity gets green-lighted by the room for fear of pissing him off.
October 14th, 2019 at 11:25 AM ^
Dude, they are thinking outside the box. There is synergy to be made and brand awareness to be had.
Think of the activations!!!
October 14th, 2019 at 11:51 AM ^
If the attendance is well under capacity then it will be a flop.
October 14th, 2019 at 11:51 AM ^
"two teams with absolutely zero ties in any way to a foreign country"
C'mon MGrow, you're not seeing the cross-cultural synergy here.
The Illinois nickname is "Fighting Illini." What's one of the most prevalent stereotypes of the Irish?
October 14th, 2019 at 11:54 AM ^
Zero ties? They are in the same division of the same conference. Nebraska has played Illinois in the last five years more often than Michigan, or Oklahoma.
If anything, this is the ideal game to ship overseas. It's a conference game between big schools so there are some stakes to the game, but it's not a big rivalry game that you would be upset if it went off campus.
October 14th, 2019 at 12:34 PM ^
He meant neither team has any ties to Ireland
October 14th, 2019 at 3:33 PM ^
Honestly, no American university has "ties to Ireland." ND calls themselves the "Fighting Irish" but that doesn't make them an Irish school (they were founded by a French priest).
October 14th, 2019 at 12:48 PM ^
We know the brains behind this....
October 14th, 2019 at 1:50 PM ^
Do they have cable subscribers in Ireland? Gotta get BTN across the pond
October 14th, 2019 at 11:25 AM ^
When I think of a big game to showcase in Europe, I think of *checks notes* the Nebraska Cornhuskers and their fierce rival *checks again* Illinois.
October 14th, 2019 at 11:27 AM ^
Do we have anyone on Mgoblog in Ireland who can tell us the reaction to this news? I imagine people are running wild through the streets in celebration right now.
October 14th, 2019 at 12:10 PM ^
Shortly after they announced it people gathered on O’Connell and started throwing corn at each other in celebration. People here don’t care about college football. NFL has a decent following where you can actually go to a pub on a Sunday and watch the games but you won’t find NCAA on anywhere. They don’t like the fact that it takes so long to play a game and how commercialized it is compared to GAA and Rugby. Also they don’t like Notre Dame. I don’t know where ND fans get the idea they are loved here but it’s not accurate.
October 14th, 2019 at 11:29 AM ^
I can only assume that the people of Ireland are taking too much of a liking to American football for some reason, and so their soccer association bribed Jim Delaney to put on a spectacle so terrible that it will crush any interest in football. He was going to bring Rutgers but you need a special licence to ship toxic waste internationally.
October 14th, 2019 at 11:34 AM ^
This is so stupid beyond stupid. Why any college football team plays in Europe is beyond me. Europe doesn't care that much about American football let alone college. It takes away a home game from one of the teams. Massive loss of revenue for one of the schools. I thought the kids were there to learn things and it's all about the academics. This is ludicrous, in the middle of the semester the kids leave school for about a week i'd assume, to play a game overseas where no one could give two squirts of piss about American football, all for publicity. Dumb dumb dumb dumb. I wonder if the Big Ten commish also wipes before he poops or wears a helmet when he drives to protect himself from himself?
When Michigan decides to play their stupid game overseas I'll be infuriated. I have no idea why anyone thinks this is a sound decision. What will push me over the edge is when they decide to play another triple option team service academy because that was such a great week for the team. It really helped prepare them for all of the other non-triple option teams they will face throughout the season.
October 14th, 2019 at 11:36 AM ^
This is stupid.
October 14th, 2019 at 11:39 AM ^
Let’s all take a moment to reflect on the fact that Nebraska’s AD (I’m assuming) is named Moos.
October 14th, 2019 at 11:46 AM ^
Why subject a global audience to... that?
October 14th, 2019 at 11:53 AM ^
Why would anyone in Ireland give three shits about Nebraska and Illinois?
October 14th, 2019 at 12:50 PM ^
Maybe two, but you are right not three.
October 14th, 2019 at 1:19 PM ^
They did give two (2) shits... obviously a third (3) shit was necessary to make it official.
October 14th, 2019 at 11:58 AM ^
Maybe they think there are Fighting Irish in every midwestern state?
October 14th, 2019 at 12:02 PM ^
I hate this stuff with every fiber of my being.
October 14th, 2019 at 12:16 PM ^
Now that puts the Corn in corned beef.
October 14th, 2019 at 12:17 PM ^
Don't like NFL playing international, & really don't like college doing it.
Now get off my fucking lawn ...!
October 14th, 2019 at 12:18 PM ^
Thanks Delaney. Oh wait...
October 14th, 2019 at 12:20 PM ^
I wonder if the Illini fans will travel from Pyongyang.
October 14th, 2019 at 12:22 PM ^
Just tells me that no one in Champaign wanted to see the game...
October 14th, 2019 at 12:37 PM ^
Dumb as hell, taking a conference game away from actual Nebraska and Illinios fans to have it in a country where neither team has any ties, and the people there couldn't give a flying fuck about it.
October 14th, 2019 at 12:48 PM ^
With some strategic trimming Lovie could pull off a spectacular Leprechaun beard....assuming he is still on the job with the Irellini.
October 14th, 2019 at 1:01 PM ^
BTN subscription will be going way up in Ireland once they see this game!
October 14th, 2019 at 1:15 PM ^
Wow...
And we wonder why the SEC still has a foothold...
That is all...
October 14th, 2019 at 1:19 PM ^
Mrs Frost has her ticket purchased already..... ticket #001
October 14th, 2019 at 1:27 PM ^
So, so, stupid.
October 14th, 2019 at 1:30 PM ^
First the Kurds, now this. When will this administration stop punishing our allies?
October 14th, 2019 at 1:41 PM ^
HOLD MY BEER
October 14th, 2019 at 1:46 PM ^
Illinois' defense sometimes looks like it's playing a different sport and now we know: it's Gaelic football.
October 14th, 2019 at 2:01 PM ^
Good plan: take two bad football teams to a place where they don’t know football, and maybe they will think that what they are seeing is actually good.
October 14th, 2019 at 3:28 PM ^
I went there once, but they were always after me lucky charms.