Why the MAC title game might be the hottest ticket in college football this weekend

Published Dec. 9, 2016 12:46 p.m. ET

Aaron Torres

It's college football's championship weekend, and while most of us will be watching it all from our couches, there are quite a few fans in all corners of the country who will be traveling to places like Atlanta, Indianapolis, Santa Clara and Orlando for the biggest games.

Although the focus is on the Power 5 conferences, there is one conference championship game that has become a hot item on the ticket market: Western Michigan vs. Ohio, in the MAC Championship.

For those who are heading to Detroit to take in Western Michigan-Ohio, no worries: Tickets are still affordable, at just $25 according to Vivid Seats. What's surprising, however, is that those $25 seats make the MAC Championship more expensive to get into than the Pac-12 title game Friday ($17), or the ACC and Big Ten, where the get-in price is just $11 each. Only the SEC, at a whopping $122 a ticket, is more expensive than the MAC.

Before anyone jumps to wide-ranging conclusions, there are perfectly good explanations why ticket prices are so low.

Remember, the ACC moved its championship game from Charlotte to Orlando, due to North Carolina's HB2 law. Attendance certainly would have been much higher in Charlotte -- which is a much shorter drive for both the Clemson and Virginia Tech fan bases than Orlando is. In the Big Ten, Wisconsin is making its fourth trip to Indianapolis in six years, and that might have taken some of the urgency out of the need to be there Saturday. And in the Pac-12, Santa Clara isn't exactly easy to get to from Seattle (a 12-hour drive) or Boulder, which is a staggering 18 hours away.

Plus, keep in mind that fans of Washington and Clemson might be saving their money, hoping to travel for the playoff instead of a conference title game.

Still, it's pretty cool for the MAC to see such a high-demand for its tickets.

Apparently, plenty of Broncos fans are willing to 'Row the Boat' from Kalamazoo to Detroit on Friday night.