How many college football games have been played in Ireland, internationally?

Week 0 of the 2023 college football season will see its first game overseas when the No. 13 Notre Dame Fighting Irish take on the Navy Midshipmen in Dublin.

College football fans need to prepare for the best Week 0 game this week to be overseas again.

It has become tradition in Week 0 across the sport we all love so very much. Initially conveyed as a way for schools like Hawaii to get a 13th regular-season game to help offset major travel issues, Week 0 is here and we like it! This year, we are getting several Week 0 games, but none as important as the traditional rivalry between the No. 13 Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Navy Midshipmen.

Oh, and this game is being played at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. So how many college football games have been played in Ireland to date, as well as how many games outside of the U.S. entirely?

College football: Every game that has been played in Ireland to date

Here is a list of every college football game played in Ireland to date, but others that are scheduled.

* 1988: Boston College Eagles 38, Army Black Knights 24
* 1989: Pittsburgh Panthers 46, Rutgers Scarlet Knights 29
* 1996: Notre Dame Fighting Irish 54, Navy Midshipmen 27
* 2012: Notre Dame Fighting Irish 50, Navy Midshipmen 10
* 2014: Penn State Nittany Lions 26, UCF Knights 24
* 2016: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 17, Boston College Eagles 14
* 2022: Northwestern Wildcats 31, Nebraska Cornhuskers 28
* 2023: Notre Dame Fighting Irish 42, Navy Midshipmen 3
* 2024: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets vs. Florida State Seminoles (TBD)

To date, eight college football games have been played in Ireland. The most recent saw Northwestern stun Nebraska in Week 0 of the 2022 season followed by Navy and Notre Dame facing off to begin their 2023 seasons. The former was the final nail in the coffin of Scott Frost's tenure as the head coach of his alma mater. Perhaps even stranger, it was the final win in Pat Fitzgerald's career as the Wildcats head coach. He went 0-for-America last year before being fired. Notre Dame, meanwhile, renewed their Ireland matchup with Navy in Sam Hartman's debut for the Irish and beat the Midshipmen handily.

Now let's turn out attention to the crazy amount of games that have been played outside of America.

College football games played outside of the United States of America

So far, there have been 98 college football games played outside of the United States since 1874. Back in the day, Harvard had a healthy rival with McGill out of Montreal, so that was a thing. But since the 21st century, we have seen 23 games played internationally, including two just last season: The aforementioned game over in Ireland and UAB vs. Miami (Ohio) in the Bahamas Bowl in December.

Since the Bahamas Bowl has been part of the college football bowl season conversation since 2014, we should expect there to be at least one postseason game taking place outside of the United States now and going forward. In short, we are going to be getting multiple games outside of our borders pretty much annually, as long as the game over in Ireland keeps on rolling on. It should. It is awesome!

My favorite thing about having the game in Ireland is that the fans over there really seem to get what college football is all about. The NFL has made a name for itself internationally in places like London, Mexico City and now potentially in Germany. Dublin is not London, but I think this is a nice piece of international real estate major college football is carving out. This game has become a new tradition!

Here is to Notre Dame and Navy giving us the people what we want over in Ireland this Saturday.