Is There A College Football Curse In Ireland?
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Today marks the 12th college football game in Ireland and it will feature the TCU Horned Frogs and the North Carolina Tarheels. Games have been played in Ireland dating back to 1988 where Boston College took on the Army Black Knights. We also saw games in 1989, 1991, 1996, 2012, 2014 and in 2016 it was renamed to the 'Aer Lingus College Football Classic'. But there wasn't any consistency with this football classic until 2022 and games have been played annually ever since.
As a college football fan, it's always interesting to see a program begin it's season over seas, but if I'm one of the two programs competing, I'd hesitate to agree to compete in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic moving forward because of what has happened to the losing team in this affair in recent seasons.
In 2022, we saw Northwestern take on Nebraska in a game where then-head coach Scott Frost needed to start his season off right. Unfortunately, their 31-28 loss to Northwestern was the beginning of the end to his tenure in Lincoln. They beat North Dakota the following weekend at home then lost to Georgia Southern 45-42 and Frost was let go after his 1-2 start. Nebraska would go on to have an overall record of 4-8, rely on interim head coach Mickey Joseph and ultimately hire Matt Rhule at the end of the season.
In 2023, Notre Dame kicked off their season against the Navy Midshipmen in Ireland and the Irish won in dominant fashion. Quarterback Sam Hartman tied the program record for most touchdown passes in a season opener throwing for four scores, completing 19-23 of his passes and throwing for 251 yards. It was year one for head coach Brian Newberry with the Midshipmen and it's still his only losing season during his tenure with Navy (5-7).
I know what you're thinking….is there really a curse if the only sample size is Nebraska and Navy? Fair point. Things REALLY start to get weird in 2024.
In 2024, Florida State was coming off a spectacular 13-1 season, going undefeated in the regular season and winning the ACC. Head coach Mike Norvell had seemingly revived the Seminoles program and entered the 2025 season as the No. 10 team in the country. They started their 2025 campaign against an unranked Georgia Tech team and lost 24-21 in Ireland. From there, they went on to lose to Boston College at home, Memphis at home and finish the season 2-10. Since that loss in Ireland, Norvell is 7-17 as a head coach despite going a combined 23-4 the two seasons prior.
Last season, we saw Kansas State take on Iowa State in the Aer Lingus Classic. In the preseason, Kansas State was a perennial favorite to win the Big 12 and make their first appearance in the College Football Playoff. Head coach Chris Klieman came into the season with quarterback Avery Johnson back in the starting lineup along with key skilled players like Jayce Brown, Dylan Edwards and Austin Romaine on defense. Their outlook was high coming into the season but their 24-21 loss was the beginning of the end of their season. They returned home and narrowly beat North Dakota 38-35 the following week and lost back to back games to Army and Arizona. Despite entering the season as favorites to win, or play for, the Big 12 title, they were barely bowl eligible and Coach Klieman ended up retiring.
Will this year be the end of the Ireland curse with the loser of the TCU vs North Carolina matchup able to salvage their season? Or will we see this trend continue?
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