Fort Worth Magazine
TCU athletic director Mike Buddie presents John Anthony a TCU jersey commemorating the moment. Aer Lingus staff members join them.
Oh, Paddy, dear, did you hear the news that's goin' 'round?
You probably did. In what was the worst kept secret in town, TCU confirmed on Tuesday morning that it is taking its football program overseas to the land of saints and scholars soaked in whiskey.
The Horned Frogs are going to Ireland, where, like our man St. Patrick did with any good snake, TCU will raise its staff and let opponent North Carolina and head coach Bill Belichick have it. (It is a rather large presumption that the football coach, noted for winning at all costs, the ends justifying the means and all that, will still be there.)
The Aer Lingus College Football Classic will be played on Aug. 29, 2026, at the 47,000-seat Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
TCU officials touted the game as a chance to enrich the student-athlete experience through cultural exposure and exchange while showcasing the university, the city of Fort Worth, and the region on a global stage.
Even at the expense of a home game.
“There's a kindred spirit, an entrepreneurial spirit, a pioneering spirit that I think the people here in Fort Worth and in North Texas share with the people in Ireland, certainly in Dublin, which has been transformed over the last two decades in so many positive ways,” said TCU President Daniel Pullin, who will become the university’s chancellor in June. “This is a win for Fort Worth. This is more than a game. The conversations and relationships that we invest in, how our world-class faculty and business leaders both here in Fort Worth and in Ireland can come together around this moment to create new relationships and partnerships and economic impact and cultural exchange.”
In addition to Pullin, also in attendance were Chancellor Victor J. Boschini, athletic director Mike Buddie, football coach Sonny Dykes, and Aer Lingus executive Bill Byrne, VP of global sales, and John Anthony, co-founder of the game and founder of Anthony Travel, which owns the game. Anthony was raised in Fort Worth. Robert Hull, consul general of Ireland in Texas and the southern central United States, represented Ireland.
The game will mark the fifth consecutive game in the Aer Lingus series, which is designed to bring American college football to the Emerald Isle while promoting Irish-American relations and tourism. TCU will be the first team from Texas to participate. The game will also be the second in a “home-and-home” with North Carolina. The Horned Frogs open the 2025 season in Chapel Hill in Belichick’s debut on Sept. 1 — Labor Day. TCU will be one of only two programs nationally to play 11 Power Four Conference opponents this season.
The game will represent a second instance of global exposure for the university and the city in 2026. A yet-to-be-determined FIFA World Cup team is set to use TCU as its training base for the world’s most-watched sporting event. Additionally, several TCU athletes competed in the Paris Olympics just last year.
“Texas is somewhere that really captures people’s imagination in Ireland,” said Hull.
Officials said the game continues to grow in global stature each year. The sold-out 2024 matchup between Georgia Tech and Florida State drew over 28,400 international visitors from 26 countries.
This year, Kansas State and Iowa State will play in Ireland with an estimated 21,000 U.S. fans expected to make the trip, according to officials.
“You want to be able to provide so many different things to the young men and young women in your program and we're going to be able to do something that they're going to remember for the rest of their lives,” said Dykes. “They're going to be able to provide an experience that they're never going to forget that's going to be very impactful for them forever.
“From my perspective, it's a win-win in every possible way. I think that the coverage and everything that we'll receive as a university will be invaluable to us. It's a great way to build our brand, not only in America but certainly overseas as well. We will take great pride in representing TCU internationally,”
That opportunity was too good to pass up — even for a home game — in a new era when season ticket holders are being asked to do more, and every single M&M sold at the concession stand matters to revenue streams now shared with athletes and an increasingly unyielding bottom line.
TCU had eight home games on the schedule, which gave them some flexibility, Buddie said. Seven is typical. Six is the absolute minimum.
“Certainly, we were sensitive to the fact that we're moving a high-profile home game overseas,” Buddie said. “But high profile is what TCU needs, right? It puts us in the best possible light on a global scale. I'd much rather be one of three or four games in week zero than one of a 100 games in week one. And to do it in a country as beautiful as Ireland. ESPN ‘Game Day’ historically attends. So, a lot of eyeballs, a lot of opportunities for people to learn more about TCU.”
