For those seeking admittance into this year's Rose Bowl, but not wanting to pay the ultra-high prices when the matchup was first made official, you're in luck. While it will still cost a pretty penny to attend, ticket prices have dropped considerably since the beginning of the month.
According to TicketIQ, an event ticket search engine that pools tickets and data from over 90 percent of the secondary market, the average resale price for tickets to the Rose Bowl Game has slipped down to $573.50 -- a nearly 30 percent drop from a few weeks ago when tickets were hovering over $800 on average. Furthermore, the cheapest ticket can now be had for $300.
Of course, that's still a hefty price tag, and this year's Rose Bowl is still clocking in as the most expensive bowl game on the schedule. By comparison, it's even decisively edging out both Semifinal matchups, the Peach Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl, that determine who makes it to the College Football Playoff National Championship on Jan. 9.
Typically, though, the Rose Bowl has always been one of the most prominent college football games played annually. The 2017 version figures to be even more special than usual, as two of the most storied programs in the country, USC and Penn State, are set to collide on Jan. 2. In addition, it will mark each school's respective return to Pasadena during bowl season since doing battle against one another in the 2009 Rose Bowl.
Both sides followed similar paths to get to this point after early-season struggles. The No. 9 Trojans started the year 1-3, which included an embarrassing 52-6 defeat at the hands of No. 1 Alabama in the opener. Since then, however, they have reeled off eight straight wins. The No. 5 Nittany Lions, meanwhile, began the campaign 2-2, before winning their final nine games, including victories against Ohio State and a Big Ten Championship triumph over Wisconsin.