Fervent fans drive football tickets past $2,600

Crazy things happen when a college football team chases its first national championship in 37 years.

Georgia fans are driving up ticket prices at a record rate for the College Football Playoff national championship game Jan. 8, when the Bulldogs face SEC rival Alabama at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta — 72 miles from Georgia’s campus.

StubHub spokesman Cameron Papp confirmed to USA TODAY on Tuesday that the ticket website crashed for nearly 20 minutes — because of abnormal traffic — Monday night after Georgia’s 54-48 semifinal victory over Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl.

“We had more traffic than expected, driven by sales in Georgia,” Papp said. “It’s safe to say Bulldogs fans flooded the site.”

Papp said Georgia led the way in overall ticket sales by state at 50%.

By Tuesday afternoon, StubHub’s cheapest ticket for the game was $2,000, and the average price was $2,689.

The record for the average price paid for a ticket in a national championship football game is the BCS title game in 2013 between Alabama and Notre Dame at $1,640.

One reason for the price jump is the lack of inventory, because Alabama and Georgia receive 20,000 tickets each — making up 57% of the total seating, according to playoff executive director Bill Hancock. Those prices, for donors and season-ticket holders, will be at face price ($375 to $875). The stadium holds 71,000.

“Inventory is pretty low,” Papp said. “We have about 4,000 seats available to purchase as of (Tuesday) morning.”