With the College Football Playoff Semifinal games set to kick off on New Year's Day, ticket prices to both games have seen opposing trends in comparison to last season's games. The Allstate Sugar Bowl will be played between No. 1 ranked Alabama and No. 4 ranked Ohio State at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and will own the higher ticket price average on the secondary market, with the average price up considerably from last season's game between Oklahoma and Alabama. This season's Rose Bowl Game between No. 2 Oregon and No. 3 Florida State will experience a different trend, however, as ticket prices on the secondary market have fallen from last season's average when the game was played between Stanford and Michigan State.
It has been a season of change and new beginnings for college football, with the ushering in of a new playoff system that has received a fair share of criticism for its ousting of top-tier teams over its final playoff rankings released this week. With the exclusion of TCU and Baylor despite convincing Week 15 wins for both schools, the semifinal games will now play host to Alabama, Oregon, FSU and Ohio State to decide who advances to the first-ever College Football Championship Game on January 12.
While both bowls will have the same amount of meaning as semifinal games, the Sugar Bowl is still 35 percent more expensive on the secondary market.
According to TiqIQ, the average price for Sugar Bowl tickets this season is currently $548.35 on the secondary market and the game's cheapest seat is listed at $232. Played annually at the Superdome in New Orleans, the game has seen tickets jump 94.7 percent in price from last season's average of $281.56. The game saw its lowest average secondary price in 2013 when Louisville faced Florida and owned an average price of $126.73 on the secondary market. In comparison to that year, secondary tickets to this season's game are 332 percent more expensive. The new playoff bracketing has been kind to Rose Bowl ticket prices, nearly doubling since last season and more than tripling since 2013.
Nearly 2,000 miles west, the Rose Bowl Game will be played between Oregon and Florida State the same day. The average price for Rose Bowl tickets is $405.04 and get-in price starts at $135. This marks a 40.2 percent drop in price from last season's average of $678.01, though the game was deemed a contractual sell-out and also marked its 100th anniversary, adding allure to inflated secondary ticket prices. In 2013, however, the game saw an average price of $228.04, marking a price jump of 77.6 percent in comparison to that year.
The current average price for the College Football Championship Game is $1,595.44, which would make it the second least expensive championship game over the past five years. However, the prices for both semifinal games did not jump until the matchups were announced and it is likely the same trend will occur for the College Football Championship Game.
Though the College Football Playoff rankings have been met with plenty of criticism over the season, the panel is widely considered to have concluded with the most efficient end result for the two semifinal games. And with secondary market tickets still reaching impressive numbers for both games this season despite opposing price trends, the considerable demand for tickets has proven such.
For more information on this season's bowl games, visit the TiqIQ Blog.