When I first moved to Australia in 1999, one of the things I knew I'd miss was college football. The massively popular sport is one of those American cultural anomalies unparalleled in any other country.

The idea that 110,000 people could pack a stadium seven times a year to watch nineteen and twenty year olds play football is odd enough for some Americans, never mind the majority of Australians.

Sure enough, I remember the empty looks when I tried to explain to friends and family that my Oregon Ducks were playing a big game against the Oregon State Beavers. I might as well have been talking about a David Attenborough documentary. And speaking of television, if I was lucky, I'd get to watch three games a year on Fox Sports.

Cut to 2012 and not only are college games televised live and in HD on a weekly basis, but Australians are making an impact at the highest level of the sport.

Former AFL player Scott Harding returned punts and kickoffs for Hawai'i this season in his first year of American football. Tom Hornsey at Memphis and Harding's Hawai'i teammate Alex Dunnachie are among the NCAA's best punters.

But the real spotlight - both here and in the US - is on Brad Wing and Jesse Williams, two Aussies who will be playing in Tuesday's BCS National Championship game.

Wing, a former Sandringham Dragons footballer, has been a media darling, partly because of his tremendous punting ability, but also thanks to a bizarre play where he had a touchdown nullified for, "excessive celebration." Wing, who spent his senior year of high school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has been a revelation, and in the first meeting between LSU and Alabama, his booming punts were instrumental in a 9-6 Tigers' win.

Williams, a 130kg-plus defensive lineman, was heavily recruited out of Arizona Western Junior College. The tattoo-laden Queenslander has started every game for Alabama this season, helping plug up the middle for a defense that is ranked number one in the NCAA. He has a chance to be the first non-punting Australian to make the NFL since Colin Scotts in 1987.

As LSU and Alabama prepare to meet for the second time in college football's biggest game, the media on both sides of the Pacific has jumped all over the story of the two Aussies playing in the ultimate American game.

The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Sports Illustrated have all had big stories on Wing, while over here, the Daily Telegraph and The Australian have both featured big spreads which, refreshingly, have been devoid of inaccuracies and hyperbole.

We also cannot discuss this story without giving credit to Foxtel, and in particular ESPN, which has flooded our screens with college football and various ancillary programs like "College GameDay" that help put the whole phenomenon into context for Aussies (and of course, provide a taste of home for expats).

ESPN Australia's superb "Aussies Abroad" segments, spearheaded by Jason Bennett, have also been instrumental in bringing these stories to our screens.

Whether or not Brad Wing and Jesse Williams inspire a flood of Aussies to take up American football (which is highly unlikely) is irrelevant. For the moment, let's enjoy the fact that two homegrown Australians are part of a great story that will play out on a huge stage Tuesday in New Orleans.

*Brad Wing and Jesse Williams will be featured on "Aussies Abroad," 9:30 am Tuesday on ESPN. The BCS National Championship game kicks off at 12:30 pm Tuesday, also on ESPN.