Remember when college football used to be something the whole family could take part in? Mom, dad and children could attend a game for a reasonable price and could enjoy two plus hours of football without breaking the bank.

The appeal, in part, was that college football was not the NFL. These were amateur athletes, students during the week, some of whom were in high school just a few months ago. College football was more family oriented, mainly because the ticket prices were reasonable.
Take a quick trip to the bowl-game bound school website of your choice. We will choose a couple. The South Carolina Gamecocks will play the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Outback Bowl in Tampa on January 1st. Tickets for that game are $65 per person. Factor in shipping charges and attending will cost a family of four $270 for tickets alone. Throw in parking, which can rarely be found for less than $25, and food during the game and even the most frugal of spenders will be nearing $350 in charges for the game. That doesn’t even include gas or hotel fees.

Tickets to the Capital One Bowl between Georgia and Michigan State in Orlando, which is on January 1st, are $80 a piece. With fees, that is $330 just for tickets to the game. The Champs Sports Bowl between Florida State and Wisconsin is charging $65 per ticket for a December 27th bowl game. Again, $270 for a family of four.
Keep in mind that these aren’t BCS bouts. If one of your favorite teams did have a great season and earned a BCS Bowl bid, good luck.

The cheapest box office tickets available for the Orange Bowl, pairing Virginia Tech and Cincinnati, are $110 a piece. With fees (via Ticketmaster.com), you are looking at $470 for a family of four. Go team.
Unfortunately, the high prices don’t only exist for the postseason. Before this season, ticket prices for the ACC Championship Game started at $60 per person. After a crowd of under 35,000 showed up in Jacksonville last season, prices were brought down considerably.

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