It was a tale of two seasons for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team. After cruising through the first half of the season, defeating Rice, Michigan, Purdue, Syracuse, Stanford and North Carolina, the Fighting Irish had a top-five showdown against Florida State in Tallahassee, Florida and were narrowly defeated, 31-27.
Notre Dame went on to lose four out of their next five games, but ended strongly with their Music City Bowl victory against LSU. With Everett Golson’s departure to Florida State, Notre Dame is expected to start Malik Zaire, who led the Irish in their Bowl win.
As per usual, Notre Dame has some marquee football games in 2015 that will be circled on any college football fan’s calendars. Notre Dame has some of, if not the highest, ticket prices on the secondary market, so below, let’s analyze a few of the most expensive games coming up.
Most Expensive: 11/21/2015 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. Boston College Eagles | Fenway Park | Holy War | Average Price: $1,230.85 | Get-in Price: $778
Once an annual series, the Holy Car between Notre Dame and Boston College is now played more sparsely, but carries the same weight. This year’s Holy War is part of Notre Dame’s Shamrock Series, which is gives Notre Dame one offsite home game since 2009 through 2016. Notre Dame is 6-0 in Shamrock Series games with the most notable wins being against Miami in 2012 and Arizona State in 2014. Admission into Fenway Park will be at least $778, where Notre Dame will look to extend its winning streak to five. The final installment of the Shamrock Series will be against Army at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas next season.
9/5/2015 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. Texas Longhorns | Notre Dame Stadium | Season Opener | Average Price: $786.40 | Get-in Price: $402
There won’t be much time to experiment for Notre Dame, as their season opener is against the rising Texas Longhorns. Getting to the series opener is possible with Hipmunk.com, which has flights to Indianapolis to be within 150 miles of the Notre Dame campus. Hotels in Indianapolis near the airport can be booked as well, so none of the on-or-off campus activities have to be rushed while in South Bend. Charlie Strong’s first season of the rebuild went okay, going 6-7 overall and 5-4 in the Big 12 conference, resulting in a Texas Bowl loss to Arkansas. The fanfare for the new season will be electric in South Bend.
10/17/2015 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. USC Trojans | Notre Dame Stadium | Average Price: $489.93 | Get-in Price: $237
There have been 86 meetings between these two legendary college football programs. Playing for the Jeweled Shillelagh, USC is looking to make it two straight after Notre Dame won consecutive games in 2012 and 2013. The cheapest Notre Dame tickets on the secondary market for this game won’t come cheap with an average price of $489.93, but the series has earned that price tag. There have been multiple occurrences where this game had national championship implications in addition to all the history behind the two programs. This year’s game happens more in the middle of the season than years’ past, but will have the majority of college football paying attention regardless.
