LONDON — Enticing college football programs to play a game thousands of miles from home at an international neutral site isn’t an easy task. The logistics involved with transporting personnel and gear alone make it a scheduling nightmare.

When a university is opening a new school in the same city in which the game is being played, however, there is a bonus incentive to make the trip and figure out the moving parts as they come. Such was the case for Arizona State, which held its official grand opening of ASU London on Wednesday.

Suits packed into long auditorium rows to hear from university leaders, Phoenix officials and students about the multi-year project. 

The school’s inception also served as the primary driver behind ASU’s decision to step up to the plate and play in the Union Jack Classic at Wembley Stadium against Kansas on Saturday at 9 a.m. MST.

"This has taken years to get this project in motion,” Arizona State president Michael Crow said of ASU London. “So when somebody said, ‘Who wants to play in London?’ We're like, ‘We do.’”

Attempts to build a global footprint aren’t new for ASU. The university has built 35 international partners through its involvement with Cintana Education. ASU has students from more than 160 countries, Crow said.

But playing a college football game in London? 

That’s never been done before by two FBS teams, let alone in Week 3 of the season. It’s an idea that was maybe wacky enough for only one conference – and one commissioner – to take on: the Big 12 and Brett Yormark. 

Yormark has earned a reputation for swinging big, for better or for worse. Bold decisions like sending teams — not just ASU — to play in international games have generated buzz around the conference and its future, even if the glass floors Yormark tested at the Big 12 basketball tournament will likely remain sidelined for now. 

Like Yormark, Crow has shown an inclination to pioneer in different areas. ASU prides itself on being ranked No. 1 in innovation, according to U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Colleges” rankings, for 11 straight years.

“That's what Brett Yormark wants to do so we're excited about that,” Crow said of Yormark’s ambitions to explore new ideas. “We think innovation is good. Doing new things, mixing it up, that's all good, all positive.”

ASU president Michael Crow (center left) and ASU London managing director Michael Goodwin (center right) pop confetti canons alongside other ASU and ASU London leaders during a ceremony celebrating the opening of the ASU London Franklin Building in London on Wednesday, Sept. 16.

(Courtesy Arizona State University/Samantha Chow)

Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham isn’t opposed to pursuing ambitious projects, especially when they help grow Sun Devils football. Even though he admitted the game in London’s iconic Wembley Stadium has posed a multitude of challenges, he recognizes the value it brings to the school’s initiative to expand globally.

“We’re playing an American football game in the most legendary stadium I can think of with Arizona State’s logo,” Dillingham said. “So how is London not going to naturally become a place that says ‘Arizona State’ and connects to that?

“To know that we represent a global brand is definitely something unique and special in the college landscape.”

Dillingham graduated from Arizona State in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies/business and communication. Since then, he believes the university has taken massive strides forward, seeing its development firsthand in the past few years under Crow. 

“When I was a student there, I don’t think there was a building over four stories,” Dillingham said. “One of the hardest things in recruiting is (that) we’re recruiting the parents of 30 years ago that remember the pre-Dr. Crow era of Arizona State academics, and we’re just not that anymore. We’re just a different university than I went to – for the better.”

Could the Sun Devils pursue similar international opportunities in the future? Possibly.

It might require Arizona State to work on another overseas project, but that hasn’t been ruled out by university officials.

“It's when we're opening ASU London, (so) it just worked out perfectly,” Christopher Fiscus, ASU’s vice president of media relations, said of the Union Jack Classic. “Now, are there other opportunities? Certainly, and then we just have to look at them and figure out what makes sense.”

While Crow is hoping to see plenty of maroon and gold in Wembley on Saturday, his main focus remains promoting ASU’s growing global initiative. At the very least, the Union Jack Classic will draw more eyes to the university’s latest academic ventures, which now include a new hub across the pond. 

“You want to capitalize on the marketing. If you're going to spend a bunch of money, you want to make sure people know about it,” said Taylor Umland, a program leader for sports journalism at the University of Salford who played American football in the UK for the Yorkshire Academy Rams. “It’s (Europe) been established as a very successful place to hold American football games that people go to. You're not going to be left out of pocket. It's going to be worth your investment and your time to go over there.”

For ASU, whose 26 sanctioned varsity athletic teams surpass any other Big 12 school, sports could serve as a gateway to promoting the university on not just a national stage, but a global stage. 

“From an enrollment lens, this meshed out perfectly,” said Matt Lopez, ASU’s vice president of enrollment. “From my perspective, sports is an incredible kind of front door to being able to share the wonderful opportunities that this fine university has.”

Editor’s note: This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.