College Football Gameday Experience: Average Cost of Attending a CFB Game Cover

College Football Gameday Experience: Average Cost of Attending a CFB Game

by Oddspedia Experts
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The upcoming college football season could be one of the best ever. Not only is it a great time to get in on the action with more and more states legalising online sports betting and great opportunities to get involved with the best betting sites, there are also hundreds of opportunities to watch live NCAAF games across the USA.
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So, how much is that going to cost?

Oddspedia's college football experts have gathered data on over 60 top college football teams and the cost of the gameday experience at each home stadium: what team is the most expensive? Where can you see bargain Division 1 football? And where are the most expensive beers in college sports? We've got all the answers, and more.

At A Glance…

  • Most Expensive Tickets: $206 for two - Oklahoma Sooners
  • Least Expensive Tickets: $40 for two - UCF Knights
  • Most Expensive Beers: $26 for two - Tennessee Volunteers
  • Least Expensive Beers: $6 for two - TCU Horned Frogs/Tulane Green Wave
  • Most Expensive Sodas: $20 for two - Michigan Wolverines
  • Least Expensive Sodas: $4 for two - Cincinnati Bearcats/Oregon Ducks
  • Most Expensive Hotdogs: $16 for two - UCLA Bruins/Miami Hurricanes/ND Fighting Irish/Wake Forest Demon Deacons/Tennessee Volunteers
  • Least Expensive Hotdogs: $4 for two - Clemson Tigers/Mississippi State Bulldogs/Tulane Green Wave
  • Most Expensive Parking: $40 - Mississippi State Bulldogs/Louisville Cardinals/Texas Longhorns/Alabama Crimson Tide/Tennessee Volunteers/UCLA Bruins
  • Least Expensive Parking: $0 - Duke Blue Devils/Coastal Carolina Chanticleers

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Most Expensive College Gameday Experience

Team name

Total cost

Oklahoma Sooners

$276

West Virginia Mountaineers

$264

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

$261

Texas Longhorns

$242

Missouri Tigers

$241

It comes as little surprise that some of the biggest teams in college football also has the biggest bill for the game day experience. Oklahoma Sooners came out on top at almost three times the cost of the cheapest college reviewed, and nearly $100 over the average game day cost. They were closely followed by West Virginia Mountaineers, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Texas Longhorns and the Missouri Tigers rounding out the top five. Eager fans of the Longhorns can check what Texas sportsbooks have prepared for them once online betting is legalized in the state on our Texas sportsbook promos page.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish were amongst the most expensive in every category reviewed, with two tickets costing over $200 a pair, a space in the parking lot coming in at $35, two sodas at $5 each, and two hot dogs a whopping $16. At that price: they better be footlongs.

Mizzou Tigers are the surprise entry in the top 5 most expensive college football teams - they haven't had a winning season since 2018 and hold a 0.535 winning percentage since joining the SEC in 2012. That may be one of their biggest selling points, however: they are in the most popular division in college football, and playing in the SEC means your fans get to see some of the biggest upcoming names in sports, even if the home team isn't guaranteed a victory every week.

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Least Expensive College Gameday Experience

Team name

Total cost

UCF Knights

$97

Coastal Carolina Chanticleers

$106

Tulane Green Wave

$106

Arizona Wildcats

$112

Oregon State Beavers

$118

At the other end of the spectrum, there's still some great football being played with seats available at some low prices across the United States. UCF Knights are the only team surveyed with a gameday experience for two that cost less than $100. Two tickets at FBC Mortgage Stadium to watch University of Central Florida are just $40! A full $10 cheaper than the next cheapest tickets and one fifth the cost of tickets to see Notre Dame or Georgia bulldogs.

The Pac-12 features well amongst the most economical gameday experiences in football, with four teams in the top eight for combined game day prices.

...And a special tip of the cap to the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers for being one of only two teams of the 69 schools surveyed to not charge a single cent for parking - Go Teal! Go Bronze!

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Most Expensive College Football Conference

Conference

Average Gameday Cost

Southeastern Conference - SEC

$203.07

Big-12 Conference

$184.40

Atlantic Coast Conference - ACC

$180.51

Big Ten Conference

$178.14

Pac-12 Conference

$161.88

American Athletic Conference - AAC

$133.33

Sun Belt Conference

$106.00

It comes as no surprise that the SEC is the most expensive conference in college football for a gameday trip for two - The NCAA Southeastern conference has dominated college football over the last decade, with at least one SEC team reaching the college football playoff national championship every year since 2015. SEC teams attract many of the top high school prospects, with the highest profile coaches, and the standard of play is higher tanning many other divisions.

Going to an SEC game for your college football hit means paying a premium price for a premium on-field product.

The Big-12 and ACC are not far behind the SEC in average game day experience cost. Again, there are top tier teams with huge fan bases and rich histories playing in the ACC, so fans can expect to pay a little more to be in the room where it happens! Curiously, The ACC has the widest gap between the most expensive and least expensive teams: Notre Dame Fighting Irish were number one with the highest cost, and at the bottom, North Carolina came in 60th out of 69 at a very reasonable $126 for two people to enjoy a Tar Heels game at Kenan memorial stadium.

    The Cheapest and Most Expensive Beers in College Football

    Team Name

    Cost of 2 Beers

    Tulane Green Wave

    $6

    TCU Horned Frogs

    $6

    Coastal Carolina Chanticleers

    $10

    Wake Forest Demon Deacons

    $10

    Oregon Ducks

    $10

    ... And now we answer the most important question in college football: where is the cheapest place to get a beer while watching the game? This great honor goes to two teams: TCU Horned Frogs and Tulane Green Wave, who have achieved the seemingly impossible bye making two beers cost just $6 for the pair! Wow. That's the same price as a soda at both stadiums.

    Team Name

    Cost of 2 Beers

    Tennessee Volunteers

    $26

    Colorado Buffaloes

    $24

    UCLA Bruins

    $24

    Minnesota Golden Gophers

    $22

    Rutgers Scarlet Knights

    $22

    At the other end of the scale, the most expensive beers in college football from the 69 teams surveyed cost $13 a beer at Neyland Stadium watching Tennessee Volunteers play. For a team that's an average of 6.8 games a year for the last five years: it's hard to predict if those beers will be drank in victory or defeat from week to week!

    We know where we'll be going for our next gameday rager... #GoTulane #RollWave

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    It costs HOW MUCH to park your car?

    Team name

    Lot parking

    Louisville Cardinals

    $40

    Mississippi State Bulldogs

    $40

    Texas Longhorns

    $40

    Alabama Crimson Tide

    $40

    UCLA Bruins

    $40

    One of the most surprising statistics to come out of our research was that almost a quarter of the college football teams surveyed charge $30 or more for a space in their parking lot on gameday. Six teams charged $40 a space. Obviously, there are other activities that take place in parking lots for football games (is the game day experience complete without tailgating?), and the teams in the top 10 for parking costs are amongst the most popular teams in football with notoriously raucous fanbases - those high prices are likely to be the result of high demand.

    If the idea of paying $40 to park your car at the stadium turns you off the college gameday experience: why not stay at home with Oddspedia? We work with over 250 bookmakers and sportsbooks to bring you today’s college football odds and the best sportsbook promo codes in the comfort of your armchair!

    Methodology

    The Oddspedia team of researchers checked over 400 sources for information on the prices of tickets, parking, beers, sodas and hotdogs for 69 of the top NCAA Division 1 football programs across the United States. The schools selected are the top 25 teams in the latest college football consensus rankings, and all teams in the ‘Power Five conferences. This data was compiled and colleges were compared in each category.

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