Michigan State, Stanford fans already battling for 2014 Rose Bowl tickets

Stanford fans are still relatively new to this “high level of sustained football success” thing, so you’ll excuse them if they may have been gamed by Michigan State fans leading up to the Rose Bowl.

The Cardinal quickly sold out their ticket allotment for the big game in Pasadena -- that’s good news, right? Well, there’s one problem. It may have sold out a little too quickly, and Michigan State fans may have taken advantage of a loophole to get their hands on some of their opponent’s tickets:

Yet there is concern that Michigan State fans may have played some part in the limited ticket availability for the Rose Bowl. Some Spartans fans revealed that they had paid Stanford’s season ticket deposit for access to guaranteed tickets in Stanford’s allotment. Because of this, a smaller allotment of Stanford’s tickets would have been available when the general sale later opened. That concern was fueled by the fact that the deposit for season tickets increased from $100 to $200 on Monday morning before the offer was later withdrawn altogether due to “high demand.”

The Stanford Athletic Department later reported that any Spartan interference with Cardinal tickets was not a major one:

Michigan State had a rush for tickets as well, leaving them in an awkward situation with some of their most loyal fans. They received 30,000 ticket requests from donors and season ticket holders for their allotment of 24,000, but athletic director Mark Hollis has refused to cut any fans out:

Hollis confirmed Thursday that every season ticket holder who requested Rose Bowl tickets by Wednesday night’s deadline, would get at least two.

To do so, MSU placed adjusted limits on the number of tickets available to mid-level donors, detailed in an email sent to season ticket holders Thursday morning, as orders began to be confirmed.

For Stanford, it’s a second straight Rose Bowl game -- they beat Wisconsin last season -- but Michigan State hasn’t played in the bowl for 25 years. The anticipation has led it to be one of the most expensive bowl games to try and attend in history:

At an average price of $901, it’s 112% more expensive than the last two Rose Bowls. It’s so expensive, in fact, that Michigan State’s Federal Credit Union is offering loans for students looking to attending the game, starting at a minimum of $1,000. With the deluge of debt that students are leaving school with, this hardly feels like responsible lending, however, when it comes to tickets for games in Pasadena, emotion clearly trumps responsibility.

The cheapest Rose Bowl ticket available on StubHub is currently selling for $719 -- Alabama-Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl is currently going for $125, at the cheapest. Rose Bowl tickets are currently going for six times the cost of Fiesta Bowl and Orange Bowl tickets combined.

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