Michigan Football’s Lowered Ticket Prices Are Still Too High

By Alasdair Thornton on October 27, 2014

So as I’m sure everyone who follows college football knows, the  Michigan Wolverines have had a not quite so stellar year.

After their last game against rival Michigan State (seriously, who sticks a flag in an end zone being down by that much), the team is 3-5, with no chance of winning the Big 10. Their head coach, Brady Hoke, is soon to depart, as his record has slid every single year since he started. And there have even been rallies in Ann Arbor by frustrated fans calling for AD Dave Brandon‘s job as well. As with most bad situations, there is a little bit of silver lining with this debacle of a season, and that silver lining just so happens to be the lowering of ticket prices for students.

Upon hearing about said lowering, I was pretty happy for the Michigan faithful. No student body should ever have to pay to see their peers play in the first place. The entire notion, at least in my eyes, is absurd. Then, I saw that the tickets were being lowered from $280 to $175. To quote the fictional character Mugatu, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.

Now, please, dear readers, forgive if I’m late to this subject of discussion. I grew up in a small school setting; the largest school I’d ever attended was 1,500 people and going to a school sporting event meant just walking up to the field of play or waltzing into the gymnasium. But $175 for a bunch of games, where the players are still in school? Does the NCAA not see the hypocrisy in which they are part of?

Basically, since the founding of the NCAA, their stance has been that those participating in the athletic events are students first and athletes second. The whole charging upwards of a hundred and fifty dollars to watch these students play, utterly and completely, contradicts this statement. People who work for the NCAA wonder why others in the sports world think of them as two-faced, snake in grass liars, who are really only out there for profit. Well, here is your answer. You cannot parade your league as amateur when the league profits are in the millions, and the players of that league don’t receive a dime of it. It’s not amateurism. It’s extortion.

Now, I’m not about to go on a rant about why college players should be paid, that’s another issue that could take up the entire front page of NCAA Football. What I will say is this: If Michigan really cares about its student body, next year, not only will they have a new head coach, not only will they have a new athletic director, but they will at least let their students go to home games for free.

Alasdair Thornton is a Big 10 writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter at @alasdairthornto or “like” him on Facebook