If there's one thing we learned from the great conference shuffle of 2010, it's that in college football, it's all about the benjamins, baby. Rivals took a look at college football season ticket prices for all 120 programs, highlighting just how expensive it can be to attend a game of your favorite college football team.
A Rivals.com survey of season-ticket prices at each of the 120 FBS programs shows that ... Ohio State, Notre Dame, Wisconsin and Michigan ... charge the most for season tickets. With required donations or seat licenses, the most inexpensive season ticket at those schools costs more than $900.
Big-time college football, apparently a recession-proof enterprise, remains a textbook example of supply and demand. For some programs, the demand for season tickets is so great and the supply so limited (even in 100,000-plus stadiums) that successful programs can require thousands of dollars in donations just for the chance to purchase season tickets. The most expensive ticket is at Ohio State, which costs $2,107, including a donation for the right to buy season tickets.
But just a few hours west, Illinois - Ohio State's Big Ten rival - offers season tickets for as little as $77. And USF's $75 end zone package is the least-expensive season ticket offered by a team in a Big Six conference.
The cheapest season tickets overall are offered by Kent State and Western Kentucky, at $30.
BC's ticket prices come in on the cheaper side of the ACC. Here's Rivals complete list of the cheapest season ticket plans (which include a minimum donation and the cost of the season tickets). Here's the list of the 12 ACC programs and how they compare:
- Virginia Tech - $436
- Clemson - $309
- N.C. State - $305
- North Carolina - $270
- Georgia Tech - $260
- Florida State - $231
- Duke - $200
- Boston College - $175
- Maryland - $135
- Virginia - $120 (for access to grass hill, no seats)
- Miami - $119
- Wake Forest - $99
Virginia Tech leads the way with a minimum cost of $436, including a $100 minimum donation. Wake Forest offers the cheapest season tickets in the conference at a price of $99 (and no minimum donation). Wake also has one of the ten least expensive season ticket packages for a program in a BCS conference. As an aside, $200 for Duke season tickets? No wonder Blue Devil fans are content to wait until basketball season rolls around.
Regarding our non-conference opponents this year, BC will be playing three schools on very different ends of the season ticket price spectrum. Notre Dame has the second most expensive season ticket package in the country ($1,250 minimum donation, $490 season tickets, $1,740 total), behind only Ohio State. In contrast, Syracuse's $100 season tickets were on the lower end of the spectrum while Kent State's $30 season ticket package was the lowest price in the country.
These season ticket prices don't reflect differences in number of home games so the actual figures aren't an exact science. Still, I think it's interesting to see where BC stacks up against the rest of the conference. Thoughts?