The home of England’s national football team, Wembley Stadium, will open its doors to college football. This season, Big 12 giants Arizona State and Kansas will be flying off to London for the Union Jack Classic series. The Jayhawks will be cashing in quite the check for the prestigious event as well.

According to Henry Greenstein of the Lawrence Journal-World, the Union Jack Classic will pay Lance Leipold’s program $2.7 million to play at the London Stadium. The Jayhawks’ traveling costs will also be covered by the venue. Greenstein wrote that the $2.7M figure is “expected to be particularly striking in comparison to what KU would have garnered from a reduced-capacity home game in Lawrence.” The Jayhawks’ home ground, Kansas Memorial Stadium, is undergoing a renovation on the east side.

Kansas will still be hosting six games in Lawrence, but the first conference game of the 2026 season might have pushed the athletics department to look for a bigger stage. This will mark the first time Wembley Stadium is hosting a college football game, and the second time the sport will be played in England. Kansas and Arizona State are set to face off in the prestigious stadium on September 19.

However, Wembley Stadium is no stranger to American football. 2025’s Jaguars vs Rams clash was the 27th NFL game to be played in the venue. In fact, Wembley Stadium was the de facto venue for the NFL International Series from 2007 to 2015. The Jags seem to be particularly fond of the venue and had once signed a three-year contract to play at Wembley from 2022 to 2024. They return for two games in 2026 as well, per the NFL website.

Even though college football is yet to reach NFL-level craze, Union Jack Classic is hoping to build on its international appeal. This game will bring some much-needed global attention to the Big 12, which is often shadowed by the SEC and the Big 10. Apart from the financial bonus, both Kansas and Arizona State will be playing at a venue whose capacity is 90,000. It is reduced to 86,000 for NFL games, but that’s a good enough number of people to leave a mark on.

“Expanding our international presence will elevate our brand, create new opportunities for student-athletes, and open the door to meaningful commercial growth for the league,” Conference Commissioner Brett Yormark said when the agreement between the Big 12 and Wembley Stadium was announced. The Union Jack Classic will be returning for 2027 to 2028.

Tickets for September’s Big 12 face-off start from £58 ($77), according to the website. Even though the Union Jack Classic is a momentous game, Kansas football head coach Lance Leipold still has to check a few things off his to-do list for the game.

Lance Leipold started planning for the Big 12 face-off miles away from home

The Jayhawks head coach will be travelling with a squad that is larger than the norm in England. It is going to be tough managing the welfare of so many people in a foreign land, and the logistics behind such a high-profile fame.

“A lot of times when you go to a country that doesn’t deal with the size of squads we have, the size of human beings we have to feed, and the amount of calories they need, you really have to think through how all of that’s going to work,” he said.

“There’s probably more things to consider than even I’m aware of. Do we shorten or extend our stay? What’s the traffic like from hotels and facilities to the stadium? How do we moderate our team’s rest and sleep patterns with the timezone differences? Can we maintain our nutrition standards? The dynamics of getting all of our gear over there – there are so many aspects to factor into.”

However, Leipold isn’t shying away from the fact that this outing is an important one for his program. He wants the whole experience to be an enriching one for everyone who gets to be a part of it.

“I don’t want this to be a, ‘Let’s get in, play the game, and leave,'” Leipold said. “I think there needs to be some cultural touches, some impact, some ambassadorship, and things that we can do that we owe to all of you and how we can continue to help this game grow.”

Lance Leipold has more to lose than the Sun Devils, since KU is the underdog entering this game. For a head coach who is in charge of a struggling Big 12 team, it’s natural to be worried, especially when the game is to be held at one of the most iconic sporting venues in the world. However, if Kansas football ends up upsetting Arizona State, they will be scripting history as the first college football team to win at Wembley.