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It’s Week 7, the midpoint of college football’s regular season. Let’s take a look at the secondary market for tickets to this week’s games.
Big Ten
| Away | Home | Stadium/Field | Midfield | Nose Bleeds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Purdue | #7 Wisconsin | Camp Randall | $118 | $82 |
| #9 Ohio State | Nebraska | Memorial | $132 | $49 |
| #17 Michigan | Indiana | Memorial | $70 | $54 |
| #21 Michigan State | Minnesota | TCF Bank | $89 | $35 |
| Northwestern | Maryland | Byrd | $16 | $5 |
| Rutgers | Illinois | Memorial | $15 | $4 |
Through these gates walk the greatest fans in the world - just, not as many of them as before. Based solely on ticket prices, you’d have to expect that Mike Riley’s making the slow walk to the lethal injection table. His unranked Huskers host a top 10 Buckeyes squad - and you can (almost) get two tickets to watch the beatdown, for the same price as one ticket to Purdue at Wisconsin. $49 for a cheap seat that allows you to see JT Barrett, Mike Weber, and JK Dobbins rush for 4 million yards on “the blackshirts” (versus $82 for the cheapest seat to see Purdue).
Rutgers at Illinois. My goodness. You can almost smell the desperation. And at $4.00/seat, it’ll cost you less than Starbucks to catch a whiff.
Top 25
| Away | Home | Stadium/Field | Midfield | Nose Bleeds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #12 Oklahoma | Texas | Cotton Bowl | $351 | $182 |
| #24 Texas Tech | West Virginia | Mountaineer | $141 | $90 |
| Baylor | #14 Okie State | Boone Pickens | $145 | $86 |
| Missouri | #4 Georgia | Sanford | $121 | $79 |
| #10 Auburn | LSU | Tiger | $190 | $54 |
| Arkansas | #1 Alabama | Bryant Denny | $161 | $50 |
| #6 TCU | Kansas State | Bill Snyder Family | $150 | $53 |
| #2 Clemson | Syracuse | Carrier Dome | $157 | $44 |
| Utah | #13 USC | LA Memorial | $150 | $31 |
| SCAR | Tennessee | Neyland | $91 | $48 |
| Oregon | #23 Stanford | Stanford | $81 | $34 |
| #5 Washington | Arizona State | Sun Devil | $75 | $30 |
| Boise State | #19 SDSU | Qualcomm | $59 | $44 |
| East Carolina | #22 UCF | Spectrum | $60 | $22 |
| Cincinnati | #18 USF | Raymond James | $38 | $21 |
| #25 Navy | Memphis | Liberty Bowl | $26 | $24 |
| Georgia Tech | #11 Miami | Hard Rock | $103 | $6 |
| #20 NC State | Pitt | Heinz | $38 | $15 |
This year’s Red River Shootout/Rivalry stands tall and proud, as exhibit 1A for big-time college football’s defense against paying players. There’s not a jury in the entire country that would believe 90,000 people willingly pay $200/seat to watch Texas’ defense. Nor Oklahoma’s, for that matter. And one or the other will be on the field the entire 3.5 hours.
No, friends, it’s not Baker Mayfield, but tradition, mostly, that brings ‘em into the Cotton Bowl at all - particularly at those prices. Tradition, plus all of the deep fried goodness outside the gates, at the Texas State Fair.
Farther east, on the banks of the Tennessee River, you can watch Butch Jones raise a 55 gallon trash can for less than $50. Butch probably gets strapped to the injection table ahead of Mike Riley.
The City of Baltimore’s many (Fed money sponsored) reclamation projects lead to peculiar pricing situations. On one block, you’ll find a beautifully restored, genuine brick row house, listed at $750,000. And from that building’s parlor window, you can watch a corner dealer sling crack in front of a condemned duplex.
This week’s “Balto” Pricing Award goes to Georgia Tech at #11 Miami. If you’re one of the 8,000 folks that needs a fancy seat near the 50-yard line, it’ll cost you $100. Two sections over, the price is $6.
Way out west, #23 Stanford and Bryce Love host the Oregon Ducks. A few years ago this game kept East Coasters up until 2am. It was an extremely hot ticket, as the de facto PAC12 championship. Now, it’s most comparable to Sparty at Goldy. Still, it’s a fun contest of styles - manball vs spread ‘em out - and is our value pick of the week.