Penn State-West Virginia Is the Hottest College Football Ticket of Week 1

The game is sold out, and resale prices are high for the Nittany Lions' first trip to West Virginia since 1992.

Penn State running back Nicholas Singleton carries the ball against the West Virginia Mountaineers during the fourth quarter at Beaver Stadium in 2023. / Matthew O'Haren-USA TODAY Sports

As Penn State coach James Franklin noted this week, tickets for Saturday's Penn State-West Virginia game are in-demand.

"From what I understand, like, you can't get ticket," Franklin said. "You can't find a ticket to this game."

Well, you can, but they're pricey. West Virginia announced Tuesday that the game officially is sold out, so fans looking for last-minute Penn State football tickets on the secondary market must be ready for some markup. According to Vivid Seats, the Penn State-West Virginia game is the most expensive ticket on the secondary market for college football's Week 1. As of Wednesday afternoon, the lowest-priced ticket for the game was $193, according to Vivid Seats. That tops the price list for Week 1's premium games.

For example, tickets for Saturday night's game in College Station, Texas, between No. 7 Notre Dame and No. 20 Texas A&M started at $180 as of Wednesday afternoon. Tickets for No. 19 Miami's visit to Florida started at $149, according to Vivid Seats.

Tickets for Saturday's game between No. 1 Georgia and No. 14 Clemson, which kicks off from Atlanta at the same time as Penn State-West Virginia, started at $90. And tickets for the Sunday-night game between USC and LSU in Las Vegas opened at $117, according to Vivid Seats. Prices, of course, fluctuate constantly.

StubHub expects Penn State to be one of the premium programs on the secondary market this season. According to the site, Penn State ranks 10th among college football's most in-demand teams for 2024. And UCLA's Oct. 5 trip to Penn State ranked fifth among the best-selling new conference games.

Penn State is making its first trip to Morgantown since 1992, so West Virginia knew it had a hot ticket for the opener. West Virginia excluded the Penn State game from its single-game ticket inventory, which meant fans had to buy season tickets or one of three mini-plans. This week, West Virginia announced that season-ticket plans were sold out as well as the Penn State game.

"I think the Penn State game is huge for us," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. "That's a regional rivalry. ... It's not a rivalry that's gone in West Virginia's favor very often, so that's a great opportunity for us. It's Fox [Big] Noon Kickoff. All their Big Noon show will be there. We're fired up about that. Our fans will be ready for that, too. I think we'll show really well on national television. But it's not just a big game for West Virginia. It's a big game for our league and it's an opportunity for our league and this new Big 12 without a couple schools that have been a part of the Big 12 for a long time in that first weekend on a marquee stage to show what kind of football that we play in this league."

Kickoff for Saturday's Penn State-West Virginia game is scheduled for noon ET, as Brown said, on FOX.

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Penn State on SI is the place for Penn State news, opinion and perspective on the SI.com network. Publisher Mark Wogenrich has covered Penn State for more than 20 years, tracking three coaching staffs, three Big Ten titles and a catalog of great stories. Follow him on X (or Twitter) @MarkWogenrich.