Michael Thomas Shroyer-Imagn Images
Most college football fans will be turning their attention to the first round of the College Football Playoff this weekend, but there are also a couple of FCS games that will determine who plays for a national championship. That includes a showdown between Montana and Montana State that boasts a higher ticket price than any of its FBS counterparts.
The 2025 College Football Playoff will officially kick off on Friday night when #9 Alabama heads to Stillwater to face off against #8 Oklahoma. That precedes a packed slate on Saturday that will see #10 Miami play #7 Texas A&M at noon, which will be followed by an afternoon tilt between #11 Tulane and #6 Ole Miss and the primetime contest featuring #12 James Madison and #5 Oregon.
That 12-team tournament will get underway around three weeks after the FCS kicked off its 24-team affair, which has been narrowed down to four schools who will compete in the semifinals this weekend.
That includes a highly-touted rematch between Montana and Montana State, and fans in Big Sky Country are once again shelling out a ton of dough for the right to watch it go down in person.
Montana vs. Montana State is the most expensive college football ticket in the country during the first weekend of the College Football Playoff
More casual college football fans may not be intimately familiar with the fierce rivalry between Montana and Montana State, who have been playing each other on an annual basis since 1897.
Montana currently holds a 74-44-5 lead in the civil war known as “The Brawl of the Wild,” and fans have become accustomed to dropping a ton of cash to watch the two teams face off; they were responsible for the most expensive college football ticket in the country when they faced off against each other in November.
That is once again the case courtesy of the unprecedented matchup we’ll be treated to when the Bobcats host the Grizzlies on Saturday afternoon, as the 125th meeting between the two teams is the first time they have met in the FCS playoffs.
The winner will get to face off against either Illinois State or Villanova for a title (and will almost certainly be the favorite), and according to TicketData, the cheapest ticket to attend the game in Bozeman was hovering at around $475 as of Friday morning.
How does that compare to the biggest FBS games on the schedule? Well, here are the lowest get-in prices for those showdowns:
- Alabama vs. Oklahoma: $169
- Miami vs Texas A&M: $260
- Tulane vs. Ole Miss: $239
- JMU vs. Oregon: $73
The tickets are also currently more expensive than every single other College Football Playoff game aside from the national championship, although that could end up changing as the picture gets clearer.
TicketData
Impressive.