The story behind Nebraska and Northwestern playing their Big Ten opener in Ireland

The remaining time Northwestern performed a domestic soccer sport towards Nebraska that fanatics should attend, it become an October day, it become homecoming and a potential crowd of greater than 47,000 noticed the Wildcats pull off a comeback victory in beyond regular time that helped propel them to a Big Ten championship sport.

Saturday, Northwestern is gambling its domestic sport towards the Cornhuskers in Dublin in Ireland. It's an occasion this is putting tremendous needs on each faculties in trade for nearly unfettered countrywide TV publicity at the sport’s commencing weekend and a in large part expenses-paid possibility to interact donors and fanatics whilst giving the gamers a short flavor of Irish tradition earlier than heading lower back throughout an ocean and 1/2 of of the USA.

So what went into faculties from one of the richest meetings in university athletics journeying hundreds of miles for a league sport?

The decision by Northwestern came with some cost. The Wildcats, who have appeared in two of the last four Big Ten championship games, agreed to put themselves at a significant competitive disadvantage. They were already scheduled to play four conference games at home in the Big Ten's nine-game league schedule this season. Now, they will host only three conference opponents: No. 18 Wisconsin, No. 2 Ohio State and Illinois.

The decision by Northwestern came with some cost. The Wildcats, who have appeared in two of the last four Big Ten championship games, agreed to put themselves at a significant competitive disadvantage. They were already scheduled to play four conference games at home in the Big Ten's nine-game league schedule this season. Now, they will host only three conference opponents: No. 18 Wisconsin, No. 2 Ohio State and Illinois.

As for Northwestern's share, last year Kansas State moved its scheduled home game with Stanford to Arlington, Texas, and was paid $2.8 million. Houston received $2.4 million to play Texas Tech at NRG Stadium, home of the NFL's Houston Texans, rather than its on-campus facility. The figures for Kansas State and Houston were from contracts for those games.

Northwestern campus spokesman Jon Yates told USA TODAY Sports that the university was declining to comment about the event from a university perspective and athletic department spokesman Paul Kennedy did not respond to multiple emails seeking comment about the game.