ATLANTA — Fans of both the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Ohio State Buckeyes have endured unprecedented travel demands throughout the first 12-team edition of the College Football Playoff to reach Monday night’s national championship game at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The field for the Football Bowl Subdivision’s championship chase expanded to a dozen contenders this season after the CFP spent its first decade as a four-team bracket, which obviously required just two semifinals and a title showdown. The CFP’s top four seeds this season received first-round byes, but instead of rest, the privilege of hosting on-campus playoff games was the reward for the seventh-seeded Irish in South Bend, Indiana, and the eighth-seeded Buckeyes in Columbus, Ohio.
Notre Dame topped 10th-seeded Indiana 27-17 on Dec. 20, and Ohio State routed ninth-seeded Tennessee 42-17 a day later, but that was just the start. The Irish followed up with wins in a Sugar Bowl quarterfinal against No. 2 seed Georgia, 23-10 on Jan. 2 in New Orleans, and an Orange Bowl semifinal against No. 6 Penn State, 27-24 on Jan. 9 in Miami Gardens, Florida. The Buckeyes pressed on with a Rose Bowl quarterfinal rout of previously unbeaten No. 1 Oregon, 41-21 on Jan. 1 in Pasadena, California, and a 28-14 triumph against No. 5 Texas in the Cotton Bowl semifinal on Jan. 10 in Arlington, Texas.
It would have been reasonable to wonder if the prolonged postseason would exhaust fans’ spending money before the final costs of heading to the Georgia capital and the home of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. Instead, the supersized playoff has only fed ticket prices for the sellout in advance of Notre Dame (14-1) and Ohio State (13-2) colliding Monday in Atlanta (7:30 p.m. on ESPN).
Resale sites have reported prices starting at close to $1,800 and averaging as much as $2,500 for the championship game.