Based on early presale prices this weekend, the 2025-26 College Football Playoff National Championship Game between No. 1 Indiana and No. 10 Miami may just shatter records for the most expensive title game ticket on record. Ever since both programs secured their championship game bids after winning their respective CFP semifinal games late last week, the resale ticket market has exploded.
As of Sunday evening, the cheapest single ticket for next Monday’s CFP national championship game on Dec. 19 can be had for $3,460 on StubHub and $3,705 on Ticketmaster — both for seats in the upper-level 300 sections of Hard Rock Stadium. Meanwhile, TickPick’s cheapest single ticket comes at the discounted price of $3,371 for a seat in Section 351. That’s roughly twice the get-in price for last year’s CFP national championship game between Ohio State and Notre Dame — two of the biggest brands in the sport — at $1,830 on TickPick, which was the previous record for most expensive CFP national title game ticket, according to Front Office Sports.
A significant majority of the championship game tickets are allotted to the two participating schools and initially sold through each institution. Meaning, the only way for a regular fan of Indiana and Miami that doesn’t already have a connection through those schools is the secondary market, creating a lucrative marketplace for resale organizations like Ticketmaster and Stubhub.
Front Office Sports pointed to other reasons the secondary market could be more expensive than usual, including the fact that the Hoosiers — owners of the nation’s largest living alumni base as of 2025 — are playing for the program’s first-ever national championship in football.
At the same time, while Miami is a more recent national champion, it’s been more than a quarter of a century since the once-proud Hurricanes last won a title in 2001. Add in the fact that the championship is also effectively a home game — with both the Miami Hurricanes and the NFL’s Dolphins utilizing the 65,000-seat Hard Rock Stadium as their home site — and within driving distance for a majority of the Hurricanes fan base, it’s a seller’s market. And with a week before kickoff, sellers likely aren’t desperate enough yet to drop prices anytime soon.
Add, with high-profile alumni such as multi-billionaire businessman Mark Cuban, an Indiana graduate and booster, and dozens of proud Miami alumnus with highly-successful pro careers such as NFL Hall of Famers Michael Irvin, Ray Lewis, Ed Reed and Warren Sapp, to name a few, there are plenty of wealthy buyers willing to drop top dollar to watch their alma mater win the biggest prize in college football.