It might be the biggest game of the college football season, but ticket demand isn't quite living up to the hype. While secondary market tickets for the College Football Championship Game are the most expensive for any college game this season, it's on pace to be the least expensive national championship game by a wide margin.
The current average price for the Clemson-Alabama matchup has the least expensive average price TiqIQ has tracked over the past six title games. At the current average of $674.81, the game is 25.6 percent below the 2013-14 championship game between the Auburn Tigers and Florida State Seminoles which had an average of $907.48 and previously held the record low on the secondary market.
Ticket prices have been in near free fall since a few days before the two College Football Playoff semifinal games on New Year's Eve. The secondary market average price has dropped 52 percent since the Alabama-Clemson matchup was decided on December 31.
This year's get-in price is just barely the second least expensive that TiqIQ has on record. The current get-in price for the game is $202 on the secondary market, just $4 more expensive than the $198 get-in price from the Auburn-Florida State matchup, the last of the BCS era, in January of 2014.
The game is also clearly and easily the least expensive of the past two Alabama appearances in the title game. Both Alabama's meeting with the LSU Tigers and Notre Dame Fighting Irish brought over a $2,000 average on the secondary market and the cheapest ticket between those two games was $849, more than quadruple this year's cost to get-in.
For those wanting to attend, travel costs could be more costly. According to Priceline.com, the cheapest roundtrip flight from Birmingham to Phoenix, departing on January 10 and returning January 12, is now $1,730.20 via American Airlines. That is 8.3 percent more expensive than Thursday's cheapest flight, which was priced at $1,598 through United Airlines.
Roundtrip airfare from South Carolina won't be much cheaper. If flying out of Greenville Spartanburg International Airport the cheapest flight to Phoenix is now listed for $1,505.20. Last year, the airfare from Columbus, Ohio to Dallas ranged from $492-559 while a roundtrip flight out of Oregon was around $1,000.
