College football fans aren’t a very pragmatic bunch to begin with. So let’s leave reality behind for this exercise.
What might your fall weekend calendar look like if you had unlimited resources, an understanding spouse, a private plane and perhaps a spare liver? We took a crack at picking a dream schedule of 21 games to attend in 2018. (Warning to anyone attempting to pull this off: The total cost for the best available non-club seat at each game, according to StubHub as of Aug. 15, was $10,568.)
The itinerary isn’t perfect — we don’t go, for instance, to the Big House, Death Valley (either one) or the Red River Shootout.
But there’s always next year.
The games, week-by-week
StubHub’s best non-club seat
Week 1
Sept. 1
Michigan at Notre Dame
Notre Dame Stadium
Washington-Auburn is probably the day’s best matchup, but the antiseptic atmosphere of Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium doesn’t compare to a twilight kickoff in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus. Throw in the renewal of a heated rivalry for the first time in four years, and there’s no better place to begin our odyssey.
Price for a ticket: $828
Sept. 2
Miami vs. LSU
AT&T Stadium
Cavernous AT&T Stadium doesn’t exactly scream college football, but a juicy nonconference matchup between blue-blood programs is worth the trip. Since we aren’t making it to Baton Rouge, La., we’ll have to hope Tigers fans bring their legendary tailgating west with them.
Price for a ticket: $782
Sept. 3
Virginia Tech at Florida State
Doak Campbell Stadium
The opening weekend wraps up on Labor Day with a third straight night game, an early ACC showdown that doubles as Willie Taggart’s debut as Seminoles coach. It’s Florida State’s seventh Labor Day game since 2005.
Price for a ticket: $598
Week 2
Sept. 8
Clemson at Texas A&M
Kyle Field
The Tigers visit Kyle Field for only the third time in program history and the first since 2004, but they’re well familiar with Aggies coach Jimbo Fisher. In his eight seasons as Florida State’s coach, the Seminoles went 4-4 against Clemson with only two of the margins greater than 12 points.
Price for a ticket: $556
Week 3
Sept. 15
USC at Texas
Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium
Ohio State takes on TCU in Arlington, but having already been to Jerry World, we head instead across the state to Austin. The Trojans won last year at the Coliseum in the teams’ first meeting since the epic national championship game at the Rose Bowl in the 2005 season.
Price for a ticket: $759
Week 4
Sept. 22
Texas A&M at Alabama
Bryant-Denny Stadium
Nick Saban is 12-0 against his former assistant coaches, and that includes last year’s opening win over Fisher’s Florida State team. Now leading the Aggies after signing a 10-year, $75 million deal, Fisher returns to Bryant-Denny Stadium for the first time since he was coordinating Saban’s offenses at LSU.
Price for a ticket: $414
Week 5
Sept. 29
Ohio State at Penn State
Beaver Stadium
Expect a whiteout in State College for this series, which has seen some memorable battles the last two years. The Nittany Lions won a stunner in 2016 thanks to a blocked punt and blocked field goal, and the Buckeyes rallied from a 28-10 deficit to return the favor last year in Columbus.
Price for a ticket: $798
Week 6
Oct. 6
Nebraska at Wisconsin
Camp Randall Stadium
In 2011, the Cornhuskers were welcomed to the Big Ten amid an electric atmosphere at Camp Randall Stadium with a 48-17 loss to Russell Wilson and the Badgers. Enthusiasm in Nebraska had been on a steady wane since that night, but the dawn of the Scott Frost era has provided a boost.
Price for a ticket: $295
Week 7
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Oct. 12
Arizona at Utah
Rice-Eccles Stadium
On our way out west for the weekend’s main event, why not stop over in Salt Lake City to watch breathtaking Wildcats quarterback Khalil Tate try to boost his Heisman resume against the typically tough Utes defense?
Price for a ticket: $179
Oct. 13
Washington at Oregon
Autzen Stadium
Autzen Stadium is one of the most scenic — and loudest — settings in college football, and this battle between the loaded Huskies and resurgent Ducks figures to be pivotal in the Pac-12 North race.
Price for a ticket: $248
Week 8
Oct. 20
Oklahoma at TCU
Amon G. Carter Stadium
On a mediocre slate of games, it’s time to check out the Big 12. The Sooners are aiming for their fourth straight conference title, and they beat the Horned Frogs twice last season en route to the crown, including a 41-17 rout in the Big 12 championship game.
Price for a ticket: $615
Week 9
Oct. 27
Georgia vs. Florida
TIAA Bank Field
The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, with its 50-50 split between Bulldogs and Gators fans, is one of the sport’s great traditions. As a bonus, if the game is another blowout like last year’s 42-7 Georgia romp, we could leave early and head back to Tallahassee for a likely prime-time kickoff for Clemson-Florida State.
Price for a ticket: $441
Week 10
Nov. 3
Notre Dame at Northwestern
Ryan Field
It’s tempting to go back to Oregon for Chip Kelly’s return to Eugene with UCLA, but we’re staying close to home for the Irish’s first visit to Evanston since 1976. Notre Dame has dominated the all-time series 37-9-2, but the Wildcats won the last two meetings, both in South Bend: a 17-15 stunner to open the 1995 Rose Bowl season and a 43-40 overtime thriller in 2014.
Price for a ticket: $459
Week 11
Nov. 10
Auburn at Georgia
Sanford Stadium
On a loaded schedule — Florida State at Notre Dame, Wisconsin at Penn State, Ohio State at Michigan State, Mississippi State at Alabama, Oklahoma State at Oklahoma — we’re headed Between the Hedges for the Deep South’s oldest rivalry. The Tigers haven’t won in Athens since 2005 and are still smarting from last year’s SEC championship game defeat.
Price for a ticket: $491
Week 12
Nov. 17
Yale at Harvard
Fenway Park
The 135th edition of The Game will be the first played away from the two campuses since the 1800s. It commemorates the 50th anniversary of the famed 1968 game in which the Crimson scored 16 points in the final 42 seconds to tie the Calvin Hill- and Brian Dowling-led Bulldogs, inspiring this classic headline in the Harvard Crimson student newspaper: “Harvard beats Yale, 29-29.” The Crimson had dominated the series this century, winning 14 of 15, until the Bulldogs took the last two.
Price for a ticket: $384
Week 13
Nov. 22
Mississippi State at Mississippi
Vaught-Hemingway Stadium
Take a break for Thanksgiving? Not when we can celebrate the holiday by tailgating in The Grove before taking in the 91st Egg Bowl. It’s the 23rd time the rivals have met on Thanksgiving, including last year’s 31-28 Ole Miss upset.
Price for a ticket: $234
Nov. 23
Oklahoma at West Virginia
Mountaineer Field
Black Friday won’t find us standing in line at Target. It’s off to scenic Morgantown for a game that could have Big 12 title hopes at stake for both teams. With a pair of Mike Leach proteges walking the sidelines in the Sooners’ Lincoln Riley and the Mountaineers’ Dana Holgorsen, we won’t want to leave our seats or risk missing another score.
Price for a ticket: $329
Nov. 24
Michigan at Ohio State
Ohio Stadium
Rivalry week brings the toughest call of all: Auburn at Alabama, Notre Dame at USC or the 115th meeting of these bitter Big Ten rivals. If you include a vacated 2010 win, the Buckeyes have taken 13 of the last 14 meetings, six in a row and — perhaps most significant to Wolverines fans — all three since Jim Harbaugh returned to Ann Arbor.
Price for a ticket: $895
Week 14
Nov. 30
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Pac-12 championship game
Levi’s Stadium
This game doubles as a preview of this season’s venue for the College Football Playoff championship game. The winner hopes it also serves as a springboard to the CFP, but two of the last three Pac-12 champs weren’t selected.
Price for a ticket: $445
Dec. 1
SEC championship game
Mercedes-Benz Stadium
If the Rose Bowl is the Granddaddy of Them All when it comes to college football’s postseason, this is the godfather of conference championships — played every year since 1992, in Atlanta since ’94 and now for the second season at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. If preseason projections hold, this would be a rematch of last season’s CFP title game — in the same stadium — between Alabama and Georgia.
Price for a ticket: $750
Week 15
Dec. 8
Army vs. Navy
Lincoln Financial Field
One of the best sports decisions in recent memory was moving the ultimate rivalry game to its own week on the schedule in 2009. The Black Knights have won the last two after Navy’s series-record 14-game winning streak. The postgame tradition of the teams joining to sing both schools’ alma maters, facing the respective student sections, brings a poignant ending to our journey.
Price for a ticket: $482
Email [email protected]
Twitter @JJoelBoyd
Sources: StubHub, NCAA, baiduhai reporting
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