According to several sources, the University of Hawaii is in negotiations to play a regular season college football game in Osaka, Japan, perhaps as early as the 2014-2015 season.
The Hawaii basketball team was recently on a 15-day trip through China and Japan to play exhibition games, and athletic director Jim Donovan mentioned the prospect of the game when speaking to reporters in Osaka.
The game would potentially take place at Japan’s Osaka Dome, and most likely would be a matchup between the Warriors and one of their Mountain West conference opponents. Teams in the PAC-12 would also be considered due to the logistical sense it would make for them to travel to Japan for a game.
This is an interesting possibility. While the NFL has done their best to make football an “international game”, college teams haven’t made the same attempt.
If this game between Hawaii and whomever they select as an opponent is a success, it could open up new marketing opportunities for the NCAA abroad, and possibly even help football’s popularity in the Far East get a little jolt.
If nothing else, it’ll be a great trip for the young me on the football team to be able to take especially considering that due to the logistics of traveling that type of distance, these types of trips are reserved for team sports that have less to haul.
Kudos to Hawaii and Jim Donovan for considering the possibilities.
The question remains whether they can actually pull it off.
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