COLLEGE football returned for the 2024 season in superb style with a special show and a stunning upset in Dublin, Ireland.
The Aviva Stadium was packed with almost 50,000 fans as Florida State battled Georgia Tech in the Irish capital.
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Georgia Tech pulled off a stunning upset on No. 10 seeded Florida State with a late field goal to win a thriller 24-21.
Florida State was a double-digit favorite and raced into an 8-0 lead with a touchdown on their first drive from Lawrance Toafili.
But their offense struggled to hit the same heights again and fell 21-14 behind.
Jamal Haynes scored on two touchdown runs while Zach Pyron ran in one more.
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Roydell Williams dragged Florida State level at 21-21 with 6:33 to play after a short touchdown run of his own.
But Aidan Birr nailed a 44-yard field goal as time expired to send Georgia Tech players and their fans wild.
Tens of thousands of supporters made the trip across the Atlantic and packed out pubs in Dublin for days leading up to the game.
Ireland has become a familiar site for college football’s kickoff game – hosting this showpiece for the third year in a row.
This offseason saw sweeping changes that completely shook up college football.
The national playoff has been expanded from four teams to 12 teams this season.
Florida State cruelly missed out last year when they were overlooked by the selection committee.
That was despite completing an undefeated 13-0 season despite some nightmare injury problems.
The conferences were also given a massive overhaul with Texas and Oklahoma’s decision to leave the Big 12 for the SEC setting off a domino effect.
The Pac 12 was also virtually disbanded with all but two teams remaining there.
The power five conferences turned into a power four as a result of the moves.
College football’s 2024 shake-up
Oklahoma and Texas switching from the Big 12 to the SEC is one of the biggest changes to college football in recent times.
And that has set off a chain reaction which has left the Pac-12 conference decimated.
The Pac-12 has lost 10 of its 12 members and is down to just Oregon State and Washington State.
Four of those teams are headed for the Big 12 – Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah.
Another four are going to the Big 10 – Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington.
And the other two teams, California and Stanford, will join the ACC conference.
No teams have left the SEC, Big Ten or ACC.
Ireland, meanwhile, pulled out all the stops to welcome America’s favorite sport.
The game is expected to provide a 115 million Euro boost to the Irish economy – around $130 million.
Minister of State Thomas Byrne visited the impressive Sports Ireland campus this week where Irish tech companies met with potential US investors and clients.
Sports Ireland showed off some of the cutting edge technology platforms they’ve been working with to help them win four gold medals at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
And Byrne wanted to stage even more major events in Ireland – including possibly NFL.
“We have so many advantages in Ireland,” Byrne said. “We’re a great sporting nation and we’re interested in hosting major events.
“If we do the NFL, I would be very, very pleased. We are certainly happy to discuss it.
“We want more games and are going to have more games in college.
“We’ve hosted a number of games very successfully and are very proud of it.”
ESPN even flew over their College Gameday broadcast for it’s first ever international show.
Pat McAfee helped hype up the crowd gathered in Dublin’s city centre hours ahead of kickoff.
And Nick Saban also took up a seat on the set having left his long-tenured position as Alabama head coach.
Georgia Tech athletic director J Batt said, “The stage, being in Week Zero, this great matchup, College Gameday coming over, huge plus for us to really talk about our brand.
“We’re a really proud athletics brand.
“We had 10,000 fans that traveled for our game in 2016 – it’s a unique experience.
“The whole of Ireland leans into this and really make it a great experience for the fans and kids, but it’s just a great sporting event.”
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