Load up on bangers and mash and grab a pint. Tailgating will look a wee different when Arizona State plays the Kansas Jayhawks next season.
ASU confirmed Wednesday that the Sun Devils will be crossing the pond and traveling to the United Kingdom for the first time to play Kansas in a Big 12 Conference football game at legendary Wembley Stadium on Sept. 19, 2026.
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark believes the first-ever college football game at Wembley Stadium “will elevate our brand, create new opportunities for athletes and open the door to meaningful commercial growth for the league.”
The Big 12 held a game in Dublin for the first time this year – Iowa State beat Kansas State 24-21 in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic – and will now be accomplishing another first with a matchup in London which they are calling the Union Jack Classic.
In a Zoom meeting with Yormark, Kansas athletic director Travis Goff and Arizona State athletic director Graham Rossini, all parties expressed their excitement to travel internationally next season.
Yormark, who took part in international games during his tenure with the Brooklyn Nets organization before becoming the Big 12’s commissioner, expressed the desire to “be the most relevant collegiate athletics conference internationally.”
“Our student-athletes are going to have a special experience, one that so many of them have never had before offered to them,” Goff said. “It’s important to reemphasize that aspect of learning and the cultural experiences.”
Rossini shared the excitement for the experience and the connection with ASU’s diversity within its student body, saying, “We’ve got students from over 165 countries, that’s 85% of the world’s countries enrolled at ASU, and almost 188,000 students with us here in Arizona.”
“This is another great effort for us to extend our brand as an institution internationally,” Rossini said. “Our presence in London will continue to grow through the effort in the Union Jack Classic, and we’re excited to be a part of the game with Kansas in the Big 12.”
ASU is partnered with The Engineering and Design Institute London, and within that partnership has pledged to give guaranteed admission to students from TEDI’s Global Design Engineering program.
Scheduling has been a challenge for both Big 12 school athletic directors, with Kansas seeking waivers to approve a game that will be played in Week 0 of the 2026 season.
“We have a waiver provided on Kansas’s end to move to Week 0,” Goff said. “We’re hopeful that the football oversight committee sees this global opportunity to elevate the game.”
Rossini and the Sun Devils continue to try to reschedule their Week 3 game against Hawaii next season with help from multiple parties.
“We will most likely move that game to Week 5 or 6 next season… that was a big collaboration between Scott Draper at the Big 12 office and the Mountain West Conference,” Rossini said.
The Sun Devils are London Bound ‼️🇬🇧
History will be made on September 19th, 2026 in the first ever college football game at iconic Wembley Stadium!
Learn more ➡️ https://t.co/ok4DdwfZC9 pic.twitter.com/DbDpsqtGtu
— Sun Devil Football (@ASUFootball) October 1, 2025
With Dublin crossed off the list and a London date on the Big 12’s dance card, Yormark sees infinite possibilities in the conference’s pursuit of international games.
“I haven’t identified markets where I want to go, but I would say we want to follow the NFL footprint,” Yormark said. “They’ve been very successful opening up markets … with Brazil, they’ve been to Germany, so I like those markets.”
An added challenge to the scheduling and organization for this game is the travel. Kansas will host a home game ahead of the Union Jack Classic. Goff doesn’t want to call it a “traditional week by any stretch, I wouldn’t anticipate us leaving more than a few days before the trip. We want to make sure we get there and get acclimated,” he said.
The Sun Devils, meanwhile, will be on the road against Texas A&M before their trip across the pond.
“We’ve been looking through a number of scenarios on the way to set up the trip for the most success,” Rossini said. “I think we’re lucky that the NFL has done this so many times, we’re learning a lot from our relationships at the NFL … they’ve also had a chance to talk to Iowa State and Kansas State, who did that this year, going to Ireland, so those are details that will develop over the next couple months.”
Yormark has emphasized implementing international games into the Big 12 schools’ schedules and doesn’t plan on slowing down any time soon. Yormark’s vision is to expand college football’s footprint internationally, including adding more games in London.
“We’re a different kind of leaguen … we’re gonna break some boundaries, we want to be innovative, we want to try new things,” Yormark said. “We’ve discussed the opportunity of moving forward beyond one year with the Union Jack team.
“We see that there’s an opportunity to return to Wembley, and we feel very strongly that this is not going to be a one-and-done.”
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