Penn State shared plans with season ticket holders via email Wednesday for a potential home College Football Playoff game at Beaver Stadium next month.
It’s a procedure that school officials say must be done now even with three games remaining in the regular season for the No. 4 Nittany Lions. Season ticket holders will have the opportunity to purchase their same seats.
The rollout of ticketing procedures is one of many steps for all potential host sites in the first year of the 12-team Playoff. The CFP released an 87-page manual to schools in August to prepare for hosting a game that will either fall on Friday, Dec. 20, or Saturday, Dec. 21. The determination of which game is played Friday night versus who plays in the first-round triple-header on Saturday will be made by television.
Ticket prices for the first-round games held on college campuses were set by the CFP. Pricing is unified across the country, with different price points for seats along the lower bowl sideline, lower bowl end zones, upper bowl, suites and student section, among others. General seating prices — not including clubs and suites — will range from $100 to $250. The deadline for season ticket holders to reserve seats for a potential Playoff game is 11:59 p.m. ET Friday, Nov. 22.
The four first-round byes in the Playoff are reserved for the highest-ranked conference champions. First-round home games go to the highest-ranked non-champions. In the latest CFP rankings revealed Tuesday, sixth-seeded Penn State would be hosting No. 11 Ole Miss. Though Penn State won’t know for sure whether it’s hosting until Dec. 8 when the bracket is released, the university has long prepared for the possibility. Last spring, Penn State moved winter graduation from Dec. 21 to the following Sunday. Attempting to host a Playoff game in Beaver Stadium while holding graduation across the parking lot in the Bryce Jordan Center was not possible.
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Student tickets are not available yet, but Penn State does plan to have the same number of student tickets available (21,000) as offered during the regular season, deputy athletic director Vinnie James said in an interview with The Athletic.
Penn State athletics has worked with the student government to determine how to best handle the ticket process for students. This procedure will be communicated to students in the coming weeks. Student tickets cost $25.
One of the biggest unknowns for all teams hosting is how many students will elect to stay around campus and attend the game. Penn State’s fall semester concludes Dec. 13, and finals run Dec. 16 to Dec. 20. Penn State will keep the dorms and dining halls open through Sunday, Dec. 22, to accommodate students who plan to attend the game, James said. Penn State typically does this when the final home game of the regular season falls either at the beginning or end of Thanksgiving break.
The CFP retains the ticket revenue while Penn State, or any team that hosts, keeps the revenue from concessions and parking. This offsets the costs associated with the game-day operations. The visiting team receives a travel stipend, so it’s not necessarily a financial windfall for the host team, though the local economy will benefit from an additional home game.
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Among the logistical details shared with all schools is that the Playoff requires each host site to hold 3,500 seats for the opposing team. Of those seats, 1,500 will be located in the lower bowl. The 3,500 tickets also include the opposing band, if it travels. A hotel in State College has already been secured for the opposing team.
Penn State has made clear the unique challenges of getting spectators to Central Pennsylvania on a Friday. With one of the most remote locations in the sport, it would seem unlikely that Penn State would host the Friday night game, but the date is out of the school’s control.
Should Penn State host, it wouldn’t be entirely like a normal home game. The signage in Beaver Stadium and on the video boards would be more generic and feature the CFP’s sponsors, not Penn State’s.
How all campuses pull off hosting has been years in the making. Penn State’s Beaver Stadium had to have priority maintenance completed last winter in hopes of hosting. The biggest hurdle for Penn State remains what to do if there is a significant snowstorm in the days leading up to the game. Penn State uses several grass fields for parking and overnight RVs, which are often in jeopardy late in the season with weather concerns.
According to The Athletic’s projections model, Penn State has the third-highest odds of hosting a first-round game at 65 percent, with Notre Dame (71 percent), Ohio State (70 percent), Alabama (48 percent), Oregon (38 percent), Indiana (37 percent) and Georgia (33 percent) among the other most likely home game sites.
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(Photo: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)
