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CFB AM: Michigan has a ticket wait list for first time in seven years
We are just now getting to see some tangible evidence of how starved Michigan fans are for the Jim Harbaugh era and just decent football.
Until now, it's been mostly a lot of cheery quotes about the excitement around town. But as Michigan held its spring game this past weekend, athletic director Jim Hackett noted a few things about how the fan base has responded to Harbaugh's hiring.
Most notably, Michigan has a wait list for season tickets for the first time in seven years.
There are about 1,500 fans waiting for the opportunity to buy multiple season tickets. Michigan has sold out all 81 luxury boxes for this season, which it didn't do last year. "We'll find out if there aren't any more new renewals and then we can fulfill [ticket] requests," Hacket said. "But we have a demand list for requests right now that we haven't had [in a long time]. We have thousands of people who want multiple [season] tickets."
Our friends at Rukkus, a ticket site, sent us this info to show how the Harbaugh hiring also shifted the secondary ticket market: Before Harbaugh was hired, the average Michigan football ticket on the secondary market was $106.83 with a maximum of $1,853.08. On Dec. 30 after the hiring news broke, the average price jumped to $125 with the maximum climbing to $2,158.96. Today, the average sits at $127.32 with the maximum at $2,576.62.
To underscore how excited fans are to see Harbaugh's first team on the field, the spring game drew a reported 60,000 fans at the Big House on Saturday, about four times as many as last year.
A few other Michigan notes while we're here:
Maize N Brew has some takeaways from the spring game, where the defense was far ahead of the offense.
QB Shane Morris -- who's competing for the starting job with expected transfer Jake Rudock and others -- says Michigan can bring in "100 QBs, it's not going to matter to me."
Harbaugh had some Easter advice for those hunting for eggs.
One Michigan fan got a tattoo of Jim Harbaugh's cameo on Saved By The Bell. Here's Harbaugh's cameo from 1994.
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
1. There's still a QB competition at Auburn. Well, at least that's what is being let out of the Tigers' spring camp. The expectation is Jeremy Johnson will be Auburn's starting QB in Week 1 and has star potential in Gus Malzahn's offense, but after a few weeks of spring practice, Malzahn won't go so far to say that Johnson is his starter. He's splitting reps with redshirt freshman Sean White as Malzahn continues to gather information about what he has.
As for Auburn's rival, Alabama got some bad news after its scrimmage last Friday: Running back Bo Scarbrough injured his knee, and some outlets are reporting it's a torn ACL, although Bama hasn't confirmed that. On Sunday, Scarbrough tweeted he's having surgery Monday morning.
2. Recruit snaps his brother's finger. Five-star Ole Miss QB recruit Shea Patterson was playing catch with his brother Nick, a seventh-grader, last week when on one of his last throws, the ball busted through Nick's hands and snapped his pinkie finger. Patterson, one of the top QBs in the Class of 2016, took some pleasure (like any brother would) in the fact that his velocity was good. Nick is a tight end and already stands 6-foot, so in another five years he appears to be a kid many colleges will be recruiting heavily. Check out this X-ray picture of his broken finger:
3. The fascinating SEC East. Bruce Feldman has a new Mailbag out today and in it he discusses where Tennessee stands in the SEC East picture. Bruce writes that he'd pick Georgia first in the division for 2015, followed probably by Missouri, but that he likes the trajectory the Vols are on better than any other team in the East. With Jim McElwain rebuilding Florida, Steve Spurrier trying to stabilize South Carolina's footing and UGA turning the page on the Todd Gurley years and looking for a new QB, the SEC East is one of the most interesting divisions in the country -- lots of talent but very little clarity. About that Georgia QB competition: It looks like it is down to two guys to replace Hutson Mason.
Have a great Monday, everybody.
Teddy Mitrosilis works in content production at FOX Sports Digital. Follow him on Twitter @TMitrosilis and email him at tmitrosilis@gmail.com.
