Big Ten Daily: Northwestern, Nebraska Will Play in Ireland to Open 2022 Season

The Northwestern Wildcats and the Nebraska Cornhuskers will travel to Dublin, Ireland to face up at the start of the 2022 college football season. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Nebraska was scheduled to play Illinois in Dublin to start the 2021 season.

Northwestern and Nebraska will kick off the 2022 college football season at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. The matchup is scheduled to take place on Aug. 27, 2022.

The matchup between the two teams in the Big Ten West will take place on Week Zero of the season. 

It’s official. @NUFBFamily will open the 2022 season against Nebraska in Dublin, Ireland. The Aer Lingus College Football Classic will take place Aug. 27, 2022. pic.twitter.com/O4PqOIQUzt

— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) May 20, 2021

"The trip to Ireland provides great exposure for the Nebraska football program and a unique experience for our players and Husker fans," Nebraska coach Scott Frost said in a release. "Our primary focus for the trip will be to play a football game against an outstanding opponent in Northwestern. At the same time, this will be great cultural opportunity for our young men to visit a part of the world that most of them have not seen."

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nebraska Cornhuskers were scheduled to start the 2021 season in Dublin for a Big Ten Conference matchup against Illinois.

Nebraska and Northwestern will compete for the Keough-Naughton trophy with the Wildcats being the designated home team. Both programs are expected to travel to Dublin a few days before the game to practice and acclimate to the change in time zone.

"The past year has been a very difficult one for us all in Ireland and in the United States. With our vaccination rollout advancing at pace, we are beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel, and we can begin to look forward with optimism to welcoming visitors safely back to our shores," Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin said in a welcome message. "When we do, we will have a very special welcome ready for the teams and their supporters when they visit us for the Aer Lingus College Football Classic."