Texas A&M-UT game tickets soar above $1,000—Most expensive college football game ever

On By Littum

Upper line

The return of the rival Texas A&M and University of Texas football teams to the gridiron for the first time in over a decade has fans lining up and opening their wallets to attend what has become the most expensive college football game ever — by a longshot.

Key facts

Tickets to see the Aggies and Longhorns play for the first time in 13 years cost an average of $1,072 per game. seat, according to online marketplace TickPick, the most expensive college football game ever and more expensive than any regular season NFL game in history.

The tickets are far more expensive than the former college football record holder: The 2023 Michigan-Ohio State game, another legendary rivalry, had an average ticket price of $763, according to TickPick.

The cheapest ticket for Saturday’s game at A&M’s Kyle Field, with fees, is currently listed at $743 on Seat Geek and $742 on TickPick — 160% higher than the “get-in price” for the Michigan-Ohio State game scheduled to the same day.

The most expensive tickets, with fees, are more than $5,000 each.

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What to look for

Kickoff for the match between no. 3 Texas Longhorns and the no. 15 The Texas A&M Aggies are set for a 6 p.m. 7:30 PM EST. The game will be shown on ABC.

Key background

The Longhorns and Aggies played each other for the first time in 1894 and the rivalry played every year from 1915 until 2011, when A&M left the Big 12 Conference to join the Southeastern Conference. The teams haven’t played since, but Texas joined the SEC this summer and resumed the so-called Lone Star Showdown. And while it doesn’t exactly happen on the holiday, the Texas A&M-UT matchup is a throwback to the Thanksgiving tradition. Of the 118 times the teams have played each other in their history, 64 of them was Thanksgiving Day game.

Key

Texas A&M, which is hosting the game, has one planned all weekend of activities solely focused on the showdown. A “Ruck Across the Brazos,” which will see people from both schools carry a single football from Austin to Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, including across the Brazos River, starts Friday. A “shout drill” — A&M does not have a cheerleading team, and instead a team of “cheer leaders” teaches students chants the night before home games — is being moved from the traditional start time of midnight to 1 p.m. 5:30 p.m. Friday and a concert featuring Pat Green and the Randy Rodgers Band, both Texas staples, starts at 20.00 the evening before the match. There will be a BBQ cook-off at Kyle Field before kickoff, and a pregame parade will include the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets, Parsons Mounted Cavalry and the school’s mascot, Reveille, a rough collie.

big number

76. That’s how many times the Longhorns have beaten the Aggies in the rivalry’s history. All time series record belongs to the University of Texas: 76-37-5.

Further reading

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