The “get in” price to watch the Indiana Hoosiers play the Miami Hurricanes for the national title is now up to a record $3,434.
According to StubHub, this price qualifies as “Amazing.” Not only is it amazing, but incredible, fantastic and a host of other glowing adjectives, provided you are the seller.
Most Indiana fans and alumni have embraced these playoffs with a money-isn’t-real attitude; the Hoosiers in the Rose Bowl, much less playing for a national title, has a distinct end-of-the-world feel, so YOLO.
“I went to IU, my husband went to IU, and we have been season ticket holders for IU football games for 17 years; we were not going to miss any of this,” said Tiffany Betner, who was born and raised in Indianapolis before her family relocated to Denver three years ago. “How many games did we sit through and watch them lose? A bazillion.
“We love our school. We love the friends and experiences its given us. It’s been a great way to spend time with friends and family. But going to all of (the playoff) games is a lot.”
When those in charge of college football’s postseason finally relented to mounting pressure and adopted a “playoff” in 2014, one of the concerns was whether fans would make multiple trips to watch their team play. The expanded playoff bracket may be great TV, and more crack for gamblers, but it can be a budget-crusher for fans who want to see the games in person.
So much so that it’s a bullet point that conference commissioners will address as they tinker with a playoff that is successful, messy and expensive.
The immediate future of the college football playoffs
Monday night’s national title game between IU and Miami will serve as the end to the season, and some specifics to this latest iteration of the playoffs.
According to a pair of college athletic directors, and bowl coordinators, the consensus is the 12-team field will expand to 16 next season. Or it won’t expand at all. There are reports that the Big 10 is pushing for a 24-team field, which has been greeted with a giant no.
The feeling is that the field will grow to 16, which will eliminate the bye week for the top four seeds, and add additional dates for on-campus games.
Also, the traditional conference tie-ins to the Sugar Bowl, Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl end after the completion of the title game. This will allow the CFP to arrange a bracket that is more geographically friendly for fan bases.
This playoff bracket featured Oregon traveling to Miami and Atlanta in consecutive weeks to play in the Orange Bowl and Peach Bowl, respectively. Its game against Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl was less than a capacity crowd. The same for the Cotton Bowl between Ohio State and Miami.
There have been other playoff games in this new era that have been just under full capacity.
The other wrinkle is the traditional four- or five-day stay for teams playing in the playoff-related bowl games will be reduced to three days.
Being a fan of Indiana or Miami in 2025 and 2026 is costly
Only because of the best of luck will fans of the Miami Hurricanes not have to travel a fourth time to see them play in the title game. A fan of Miami who lives in Florida had to travel to Texas in consecutive weeks to see the ‘Canes play in the opening-round game at Texas A&M, and the following week to DFW for the game against Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl.
By beating the Buckeyes, that meant a trip to Phoenix for the Fiesta Bowl against Ole Miss.
The bracket was equally hard for Indiana fans, who overwhelmingly have supported the Hoosiers in this run through Los Angeles, Atlanta and now South Florida.
Whereas fans of an Ohio State, Georgia or other programs that are accustomed, or financially exhausted by their program’s postseason appearances, Hoosier fans are in a drunken state of euphoria and will eagerly pay any price to experience something they never thought possible.
“I could die tomorrow and this may never happen again,” Betner said. “When we went to the Rose Bowl, to see Indiana beat Alabama, all we kept talking about was the disbelief that it was happening.”
For IU fans, this has been all worth it. However, it is expensive. Bowl executives estimated it can cost a person $15,000 to attend every bowl game in person that requires a flight.
In college football’s original postseason, following a team to a bowl game meant a trip. Now, it can mean four. That’s flights. Hotels. Maybe a car rental. Dining out.
In the immediate moments after TCU lost to Georgia in the 2022 national title game, TCU coach Sonny Dykes all but apologized to fans who followed the team to L.A., and said, “You hate it for your players and your fans that traveled all the way to LA. They really invested in our program. I know flights were expensive. I know tickets were expensive. I know all of it was hard to do.”
Bowls will be part of the future playoffs
A large part of college football’s appeal is the atmosphere around games on campus. In this expanded playoff model, the opening-round games are played on campus, and there is online momentum — for whatever that’s worth — to have more of them there.
The bowls will fight this potential evolution; their existence depends on it.
Adding another football game to the calendar for college teams is not as easy as just putting it on a schedule; the postseason happens when nearly all colleges are on winter break. Students are away. Dorms are closed. Staffers are on vacation. This is potentially doable, but a postseason game on Dec. 27 in Tuscaloosa is not like playing a game there on Oct. 27.
The second-year of the 12-team playoff is a success, and so flawed. It’s too long. The geography doesn’t make sense. And it asks too much of fans, even those like Tiffany Betner and her family, who are loving every second of Indiana’s run to Miami.
————
Mac Engel is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.