Mercedes-Benz Stadium will be the epicenter of both bummer and bliss Monday night in downtown Atlanta. This national title tilt between two illustrious Midwestern football programs brings to a close the first iteration of the 12-team College Football Playoff, with No. 8-seed Ohio State and No. 7 Notre Dame hoping to be the first champion of this new era of the sport.
The celebratory confetti raining from the roof will douse the turf either scarlet and gray or blue and gold. Packed inside the stadium will be devout fans with those same colors coursing through their football-crazed veins. This Playoff presented a series of firsts for the sport: first-ever Playoff games played at home stadiums, first-ever official appearances for outsiders once begging to be included, such as Mountain West Conference winner Boise State.
And it’s the first time fans have been asked to fling open their wallets to watch as many as four games as their beloved teams marched toward a championship appearance. Both the Buckeyes and Fighting Irish faithful fell into such a category. They had to get to Atlanta the hard way, without a first-round bye, needing to best various teams all over the country. Semifinalists Texas and Penn State advanced so far after playing in their conference title games.
The Athletic spoke with four fans from each of the four semifinalists to get a sense of how much following their favorite teams in the Playoff cost.
For an overview of the market, Playoff games held on campus for the first time in the first rounds ended up being the biggest draws.
As for the most expensive? Getting to witness history is pricey. The very first game of the Playoff in snowy South Bend, Ind., came in at an average of $770 per ticket, by far the most expensive of the Playoff’s first three rounds.
Notre Dame fan, Kristi Busack
A Fighting Irish alumna, Busack’s home base is Pittsburgh, Pa., so attending each of the four Playoff games this run has been a task, but one she isn’t afraid to lean into. She already regularly drives in for a couple of regular-season games. And in a prescient move, she booked hotel rooms for the first-round matchup, which ended up being against Indiana, over a year ago, believing Notre Dame had a shot to host a Playoff game in South Bend. Her group of friends was able to secure box seats for the quarterfinal win over Georgia in the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans and relished the South Florida vibes in the semifinal win over Penn State. Like thousands of other Fighting Irish fans, she’s praying Atlanta will be the spot where her alma mater wins its first national title since 1988.
Ohio State fan, Robert Cherry
A native of Toledo, Ohio, Cherry is an educator in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. His road to Atlanta ironically began there last month. Cherry flew to Atlanta for a work trip, then dropped into Columbus for Ohio State’s first-round matchup against Tennessee. He escaped the bitter cold by snagging a club seat in the win over the Vols, but thanks to his brother who is a season-ticket holder, he was able to attend the Rose Bowl win over No. 1 Oregon just a half hour from home in Santa Monica. Cherry has attended every OSU appearance in the CFP dating back to its start in 2014 when the Buckeyes were the first-ever program to win in the new four-team Playoff format.
Texas fan, Nichole Williamson
A Texas alumna, Williamson’s Playoff road stayed within the confines of the Lone Star State. Still calling Austin home, she’s about a 20-minute drive from DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium, so the first-round win over Clemson was a breeze. A season-ticket holder, Williamson was able to secure her own seats for the win over the Tigers. She was given free tickets to the Peach Bowl in Atlanta against Arizona State but was not able to attend due to work requirements. The Cotton Bowl matchup against Ohio State was a no-brainer, and she even braved an early-January snowstorm to get to Arlington. Williamson had the foresight last summer to book refundable travel and lodging for the national title game thinking the Longhorns had the makeup of a team to get there. They came up agonizingly short.
PSU fan, Cory Sprankle
A Penn State alumnus, Sprankle grew up going to Nittany Lions games at Beaver Stadium. He has been a season-ticket holder since 2018 and makes the four-hour drive from his home in Stamford, Ct., for home games. He was able to secure his own seats for the frigid first-round win over SMU but did not go to the Fiesta Bowl win over Boise State. An active U.S. Army member, Sprankle used his military travel discount to make the trek to South Florida not as big of a financial hit. But the tickets, on the other hand, were pricey. He accidentally missed the initial email from the university inviting season-ticket holders to request tickets at a lesser price, so he went big on the secondary market getting club seats for $675 a piece inside Hard Rock Stadium.
Junghye Kim and John Bradford contributed to this article.
(Images: Will Tullos / The Athletic; Photos courtesy of Kristi Busack, Robert Cherry, Nichole Williamson and Cory Sprankle)
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