Aer Lingus College Football Classic 2025 Schedule: What Teams Are Playing in Ireland?

A pair of Big 12 rivals will play in their first Aer Lingus College Football Classic on Saturday.

The 2025 college football season begins with the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Ireland. / Imagn Images

The 2025 college football season kicks off in Ireland with the Aer Lingus College Football Classic taking place this Saturday. Iowa State-Kansas State will play in this year's Aer Lingus College Football Classic, the first of five games taking place in Week 0, before the rest of college football springs into action the following week.

What is the Aer Lingus College Football Classic?

Originally known as the "Emerald Isle Classic," the Aer Lingus College Football Classic is a now-annual college football game that takes place in Dublin, Ireland. The Aer Lingus Classic was the first prominent NCAA-sanctioned college football game to take place in Europe, with the initial matchup coming in 1988 when Boston College defeated Army 38-24.

The Aer Lingus Classic took place four times between 1988-1996 before returning in the 2010s. The game has become an annual event since 2022. Following the Iowa State-Kansas State matchup in 2025, North Carolina will face TCU in the 2026 Aer Lingus Classic, followed by Pitt and Wisconsin in 2027.

How to Watch the 2025 Aer Lingus College Football Classic

The Aer Lingus College Football Classic will take place on Saturday at 12 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on ESPN and available to stream on Youtube TV or Fubo.

Iowa State vs. Kansas State

For the first time in the 108-year rivalry between Iowa State and Kansas State, a.k.a. "farmageddon," the game will be played internationally. The Iowa State-Kansas State rivalry, which dates back to 1917, has exclusively been played in either Ames, Kansas City, or Manhattan, Kansas, but now moves to Ireland for each team's first appearance in the Aer Lingus Classic.

Iowa State enters this game looking to build off a strong 2024 campaign that saw them go 11-3, 7-2 in the Big 12 and win the Pop Tarts Bowl over Miami. The Cyclones will see Rocco Becht return as their starting quarterback for a third straight season, but he will have new top targets after Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel departed for the draft last spring.

Expectations are also high for Kansas State and junior quarterback Avery Johnson as they open up the season on Saturday. The Wildcats are coming off a 9-4 season and a Bowl Game win of their own. They rank No. 17 in the preseason AP top 25 poll—while the Cyclones rank No. 22—and will look to get an early lead in the Big 12.

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