CFP Ticket Prices Are Plummeting, As Fans Are Forced To Make Tough Decisions With New Format

I didn’t expect to see Sugar Bowl tickets plummet to $45 a piece on the secondary market, especially with a matchup between Georgia and Notre Dame taking place in New Orleans. 

But, I would imagine the folks running the College Football Playoff saw this coming with a new 12-team format. 

This year, fans of teams still participating in the CFP have had to make some tough decisions when it comes to traveling and cheering on their favorite team. 

Do I wait until the semifinals or potential national championship to go watch my team? 

Judging by the prices right now for all four quarterfinal playoff games that will take place over the next 24 hours, there are many fans who decided to wait it out, and pray that their team is fighting for a championship in 20 days. 

As of Monday night, you could buy a ticket to the Ohio State-Oregon Rose Bowl for just $140 on Ticketmaster. If that game was a standalone, not even for a college football playoff spot, the prices would certainly be higher. 

Looking around the website, the brokers who bought tickets for these four games are going to take another massive hit, just as they did when they scooped up thousands of seats for the Ohio State versus Tennessee matchup. 

Thankfully, for those brokers who were trying to off-load a bunch of tickets, fans clad in orange bought up a massive amount of inventory. If the Vols hadn’t traveled so well, there would’ve been hundreds of empty seats in Columbus, and that's being generous.  

Peach, Fiesta And Sugar Bowl Tickets Are A Steal Right Now

Asking fans to travel four times in the span of one month was wishful thinking, and I'm being nice when I characterize it that way. Do you honestly think Texas fans want to travel back to Atlanta this week, after just playing their for an SEC title earlier this month? Hell no, and I don't blame them one bit, especially if the Longhorns win their next two games, and would once again return to Atlanta for the national championship. 

This is one of the main reasons why tickets are just $28 to get into Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. Sure, Arizona State fans will make the trip, but there won’t be 30,000 of them making the cross-country trip, one week after Christmas, and on a random New Year’s Wednesday. 

How about the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans? Nope, it's not much better when it comes to having a full-house, with tickets currently going for just $45 on Ticketmaster. Georgia and Notre Dame fans will certainly have a presence in the ‘Big Easy’, but nothing like what it would be for a national title game. 

Rose Bowl tickets are the most expensive of the CFP so far Via: Ticketmaster

And judging by certain sections that are not for sale in Glendale, Arizona for the Fiesta Bowl, they've decided not to even try and sell tickets in the upper-deck corners. If you're a Penn State or Boise State fan, you can get into the game for just $65 right now, and that price will continue to drop before kickoff. 

The only way to explain this is the fact that fans are not going to shell-out thousands of dollars to go watch their team play potentially three or four games in the span of  a month. It's not economically feasible, unless your mode of travel is by private jet. 

Sugar Bowl ticket prices start at $45 for Georgia vs. Notre Dame Via: Ticketmaster

But, this is not a pity party for the College Football Playoff, as they've made their money. From ad-revenue to television contracts, and so on, the organization is doing just fine. Sure, it will look rough on television when they show the wide camera shots of the stadium, but I would imagine ESPN is going to stay away from those views, at the behest of the CFP. 

This is not the NCAA Tournament, where you at least get the chance to watch your favorite team play twice in the same city in one weekend, if they get past the first game. 

If you decided to make the trip to whichever city to support your favorite team, I'm genuinely happy for you, and hope it's a fantastic time. But I would imagine a good chunk of those fans who watch their team win over the next 24 hours are going to think about sitting-out the semifinal games in Miami and Dallas, praying that they can make a trip to Atlanta to watch their team play for a national championship. 

Why? Because it's financially responsible, which they (CFP) could clearly care less about.