College Football Playoff Experience Worth the Expense for Alabama, Michigan Fans

In a sea of college football bowl games, the Rose Bowl will always stand out. As Keith Jackson said every New Year’s Day for decades, it is the “Granddaddy of Them All.”

So when your favorite team earns a spot in the College Football Playoff and the destination is Pasadena, California, you make the trek regardless of distance or price.

Alabama clashed with Michigan on New Year’s Day in a CFP Semifinal, with the Wolverines advancing to Monday’s title game after a thrilling 27–20 overtime win in front of a crowd of 96,371.

It was the 110th Rose Bowl Game, always a gigantic economic driver for the Pasadena area. A 2018 study done by Enigma Research Corporation found the economic impact for the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl Game is nearly $200 million.

Fans from both teams made the journey from all over the country to see the two powerhouses meet in one of sports’ most iconic stadiums. While the Pac-12 played its final regular-season game in the Rose Bowl on November 25, the Rose Bowl itself plowed forward hosting a meeting of two of the winningest programs in college football history.

For some, the trip out west was a last-minute decision. For others, it was months in the making. For all, the price tag was steep.

The Road Trippers

A quartet of recent Michigan grads took a bit of a gamble, then a road trip from Las Vegas to get to Pasadena.

Three of the four booked flights from Ann Arbor to Las Vegas, where the fourth friend lives. But this wasn’t an impulse buy — Matthew Roller says they bought the flights and game tickets more than two months ago.

“We were optimistic about Michigan making it,” Roller said. “So we bought game tickets about two months ago before the season was over. We were hedging that either Michigan would make it, or we would be able to upsell the tickets. Luckily, we made it.”

The four friends rang in the New Year on the Las Vegas Strip before departing for Pasadena early in the morning, taking the same route across the desert as the characters in the movie “The Hangover.”

“We actually saw a guy dressed like Alan from ‘The Hangover’ last night, so that’s a good comparison,” Roller said. “When we bought the flights, we figured worst case we’d spend the New Year in Vegas if we didn’t go to the game. Buying the plane ticket early was only about $300 round trip and game tickets were $350 each. So we’re each doing this trip for under a grand, which I don’t think may other people were able to do.”

Arjun Anand, Roller’s friend and a fellow 2023 Michigan graduate, also made the trip from Ann Arbor. He says traveling to the Rose Bowl means more than a normal bowl game and playing Alabama made it even more special.

“Growing up, ‘Bama has always been the overall No. 1 team,” Anand said. “They lost to Texas early in the season and now they’re No. 4, which is totally unexpected when you think of ‘Bama because you always think of them as No. 1. ‘Bama has a top-5 fan base and is an elite football school, so playing them does mean more.”

Roller was hoping to see his Wolverines finally get their first playoff win in the program’s third attempt after losses to Georgia and TCU the past two years.

“Beating a team like ‘Bama would be a bigger step forward for the program,” Roller said in pregame. “But if we had played a Pac-12 team it would’ve been more historic to what the Rose Bowl is and that would be a different vibe. But in terms of taking that step forward and to stake ourselves as the next premier program, you have to beat a team like Alabama.”

And, as it turns out, Michigan will have its season end with a traditional Rose Bowl battle against the Pac-12 champions in Washington — just in Houston at the CFP title game instead of Pasadena.

The Family Trip

Tim Clark is a Michigan grad who runs an entertainment company in Chicago. He, his wife and their two kids flew out from the Windy City to support the Wolverines at a cost of about $4,000 (not counting flights, as they used miles).

“This was an emotional purchase,” Clark said with a chuckle at the tailgate. “I called my wife two weeks ago and just said ‘hear me out’ … because we actually had another trip planned the next week to go to Florida, so we literally changed everything over last minute. Considering we decided to do this so late, the tickets weren’t actually too bad compared to what the last-minute market is now before the game.”

The Clarks had good seats — four tickets about 40 rows up from the field. They spent roughly $500 per ticket, with the resale market approaching $800 per ticket in the days leading to the game.

The entire trip was a Christmas present for the two Clark children: “They opened up a present that was a rose in bowl and this trip was their Christmas present,” Tim Clark said.

Did it mean more that Big Blue was going to clash with another college football blueblood in Alabama?

“Absolutely,” Clark said. “We actually traveled in 2012 to see Michigan play Alabama in Dallas, but coming out to the Rose Bowl is just a destination trip.”

The Last-Minute Trip

The two weeks the Clarks used to plan their trip was about twice as much time as Alabama fans Greg and Christy Lovette spent organizing their excursion from Charlotte to Pasadena.

“I hadn’t planned this trip until Christmas Eve arrived and I hadn’t gotten her a gift yet,” Greg said with a hearty laugh. “She got a bowl with a rose in it for Christmas and she asked when we were going and what seats we had — and I told her I hadn’t done any of that yet. So she planned it all in the last week.”

The Lovettes aren’t typical fans. They flew first class and stayed at a hotel that was along the route of the Rose Bowl Parade. That, plus some nice seats close to the action, totaled about $6,000.

The couple’s daughter, who graduated from Alabama in 2022, also made the trip with her boyfriend, but Greg estimates the recent grads only had to spend about $600 by staying in Santa Monica and not renting a car.

While the Michigan fans at the tailgate seemed confident, the Lovettes saw the matchup a little bit differently.

“This is going to sound a little bit arrogant — because as ‘Bama fans we can be a bit arrogant after all the success (Coach Nick) Saban has had — but it doesn’t matter who we play,” Greg said. “They’re just another team on our road to a championship. If it was Georgia or Auburn then there might be a little something extra, but not for Michigan.”

Senior Trip

Christina Smith, a senior at Alabama, and three of her friends traveled from Tuscaloosa to support their Crimson Tide.

While the flights were steep at about $800, they made up the difference with $25 student tickets offered through the university. The four friends split a $700 hotel room, which they booked after Alabama was announced as the fourth team in the CFP field on December 3.

“We were at the SEC Championship game against Georgia, so the next day when they announced that we were in the playoff, we planned the trip,” Smith said. “Some of us have jobs and some got this trip as Christmas or birthday presents. The Rose Bowl is a place with a lot of football history and getting to come out to this game was the best present we all could’ve given ourselves.”

During pregame, Smith wasn’t as cocky about playing Michigan as some of the other Alabama fans: “I think it’s huge to play a team like Michigan, especially after all the hype they’ve had all season and the fact that Alabama was kind of under the radar most of the season,” she said.

That ended up being a premonition. And for those who departed Pasadena and started looking for tickets for the title game in Houston, Wednesday’s resale market has prices at around $900 per ticket.