Levi's Stadium Oregon Vs. Arizona Matchup Drawing Lowest Ticket Price Of Any Conference Championship
Provided by TiqIQ
This Friday evening the Oregon Ducks will take on the Arizona Wildcats in the 2014 Pac-12 Championship game. Arizona enters the contest as the 11th ranked team in the nation with a 10-2 record. Their only blemishes on the year are a two point loss vs. USC and a ten point defeat at UCLA. Oregon, meanwhile, is the 2nd ranked team in the nation, currently boasting a sterling 11-1 record. Nonetheless, their one loss this season was at the hands of none other than the Arizona Wildcats.
The two will meet at the sparkling new Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. If Oregon is able to prevail, they will almost certainly lock up one of the four playoff positions for this year's College Football Playoff. Oregon is the second ranked team, according to the playoff committee, so a win will get them in. For Arizona, they will most likely need a win and additional help in the form of losses from TCU, Baylor, and/or Ohio State. But even with just a win Friday night, they will have defeated Oregon twice this season, arguably the two most impressive wins by any team in 2014.
With so much at stake, you would expect the Pac-12 Championship to be a hot ticket. But in comparison to the other bowl games, the Pac-12 conference final is actually the cheapest championship game to attend this weekend. Currently, Pac-12 Championship Game tickets are available at PrimeSport.com for as little as $21. Back when Oregon hosted Arizona at Autzen Stadium on October 2nd, the cheapest tickets available were $35 so Friday night's rematch actually has lower priced available tickets.
According to PrimeSport, who is the official ticket exchange of the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl, the average ticket price for the Pac-12 Championship is $122 which is slightly higher than the $110 average price for the October 2nd meeting. Nonetheless, it is still the least expensive of the four major conference finals – ACC, Big Ten, SEC, and Pac-12 – and is even cheaper than this Saturday's rivalry match between Army and Navy (average ticket price of $171.)
That's not to say that the ticket-buying fans will not get to enjoy a thrilling game. Oregon is a two touchdown favorite, but the Wildcats were 24 point underdogs earlier in the year when they beat the Ducks 31-24. They also were underdogs when they dashed Oregon's hopes of making the national championship game in 2012 when Arizona won 42-16 at home.
Oregon will hope to avoid such a setback this time around. Quarterback Marcus Mariota, arguably the Heisman favorite with one game to go, had his worst game of the season against Arizona. He was bottled up all night long and managed just one yard rushing on nine attempts. It was the only game of the season that his QBR (quarterback rating) was below 80 (he finished at 53.1.) The Wildcats will need to do a similarly perfect job if they want to take home the Pac-12 title. Coach Rich Rodriguez has brought the program out of the depths and led them this year to their first double digit win season this millennium, but he'll need to figure out a defensive game plan that gives the Wildcats an opportunity to contain Mariota and keep him from doing too much damage early on.
The meeting between Oregon and Arizona is the only grudge match of the four major conference championships as none of the three other games has the two opponents play earlier this season. That familiarity between the two teams, as well as the desire to right the wrong from earlier in the season (Oregon) or prove to the doubters that October 2nd was no fluke (Arizona) may mean this will be the best game of the bunch. And if that's the case, fans who go to the game will be very pleased with their purchases.
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