University of Colorado Football Games Are Country's Most Expensive, Study Finds

Did you make it to a Deion Sanders-coached Colorado Buffaloes game at Folsom Field last season? Congratulations, big spender. According to a survey by betting site Oddspedia, the most expensive college football games to attend in the country are at the University of Colorado Boulder, up from the fourth-most expensive gameday experience the year prior.

Talk about some prime numbers.

According to an analysis by Oddspedia, the average cost of football tickets, parking, two beers, two sodas and two hot dogs at Folsom Field is $302 in 2025, 13.6 percent higher than last year. That number is 63.5 percent higher than the national average of $184.67, and starkly ginormous when compared to the cheapest gameday in the nation at Western Kentucky University, where it will only cost $84 for the same package to see the Hilltoppers play

The Buffs went 9-4 last season and outperformed expectations, but it's still a surprise to see CU have a more expensive home-game experience than schools like the University of Notre Dame and SEC powerhouses like the universities of Alabama, Georgia and Texas, all of which are forecasted to cost slightly less for fans this season.

Could it be because the Buffs were largely featured on prime time for television broadcast purposes since Sanders took over coaching the football program in 2023? The increased popularity since Coach Prime showed up certainly hasn't hurt demand, but we won't point the finger at him for the inflated costs — it's his job to raise the program's profile, and he's had enough going on this year, recently announcing he'd bested bladder cancer after doctors removed the offending organ.

Oddspedia's researchers place the blame on CU ticket prices, which rose 13.6 percent from last year to an official $228 for two tickets. Our own peek at tickets for this coming season, kicking off at home on August 29 against Georgia Tech, shows most games for sale by CU are closer to $150 a ticket, with the cheapest (against Delaware and Arizona) around $110 each.

Colorado didn't experience the biggest uptick in ticket prices from 2024 to this year, however. That honor belongs to Liberty University, founded by the late televangelist Jerry Falwell, and home of the Flames. Liberty's football gameday cost ballooned from $84 in 2024 to $154 in 2025.

Even as the price of college football tickets skyrockets in Colorado and beyond, they're still nowhere near the cost of tickets to the Denver Broncos home opener on September 7 against the Tennessee Titans. As of July 30, the cheapest price for two tickets to see that game is $313.56, and that's not counting food or drinks.