How to successfully play a college football game in Brazil

Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

I understand that this isn’t always a popular position, but I’m in favor of (occasionally!) playing college football games in international markets. There are financial reasons to occasionally do this (open new television windows, create an attractive donor junket, recruit new students, grow international television rights, etc), but also educational ones (create unique experiences for college students, promote cultural exchange and share institutional research, etc).

I was particularly excited to see that major college football was finally ready to play a game in Brazil. I’ve written about this a few times, but if you didn’t know, despite my Mega Gringo Name, I’m actually half-Brazilian. My mom was born in São Paulo, and most of my extended family still lives there.

So I was ready to book a flight and cover the first major college football game in Brazil, no matter who was playing. But I have to admit, when I saw the teams (Virginia and NC State), I was a little confused. Neither of those teams is particularly uh, Brazilian.

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Normally, I’ve found that schools and leagues are very excited to talk to me about international travel plans. But despite multiple attempts (and some initial interest), I found that the schools, the ACC and even local Brazilian officials were slow to return my calls, and nobody wanted to go on the record about the game.

Which, along with changing geopolitical events, made me suspect that this game actually wasn’t going to happen.

Aaaaaaaand it turns out, I was right. On Wednesday, the ACC announced that the game will be moved back to the United States, after “extensive review with operational partners and international stakeholders.”

A source familiar with Brasil Sports Business told me earlier this week that sales for the game were trending behind expectations, especially for locals, but based on the information that has been released in public, I don’t personally believe the plug was pulled just because of slower sales.

For what it’s worth, according to the contract for the game that I previously obtained via an Open Records Request and uploaded to the Extra Points Library, the schools were slated to be paid $2 million each, plus a cut of sponsorships and travel package sales.

If the game was cancelled by Athlete Advantage for a reason beyond the Participation Review Process, Athlete Advantage will need to fork over $1.5 million to each school. We’ll see if that ends up happening.

The NFL believes there are well over 30 million professional football fans in Brazil, making it the second largest international market for American football, outside of Mexico. So I can understand why other marketing agencies and college football programs would eventually want to play a game there. In the abstract, I still think that would be a good idea, and not just because I want an excuse to fly back, drink caipirinhas and claim it’s a business expense.

But the details matter. If anybody wants to play a college football game in Brazil, here’s what I think needs to happen to make it a successful event.