The Tulane-Ole Miss CFP game is generating expensive tickets and jaw-dropping Oxford rentals
When Tulane travels to Ole Miss for its first-round College Football Playoff game, Green Wave players will be entering a familiar venue, but the feel will be very different.
Yes, Tulane played the Rebels in Week 4, but Saturday’s game will be history-making for both teams.
It’s the first time that either school has played in the CFP. Ole Miss is the first Mississippi school in the playoff, and fans seem to have recognized the gravity of the moment.
When the playoffs were announced, the secondary ticket market had the get-in price at $401. That’s nearly double face value. Those prices have fallen a bit since that peak, but it’s still well above face value to enter Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
“Our whole goal is that we want (the fans) to be excited after the game,” new Ole Miss coach Pete Golding said. “We’re not worried about the excitement before the game. We’re not getting caught up in the excitement of the fans and all that. Let’s give them something to be excited about during and after.”
But the fanfare and economic impact are projected to be massive. The Rebels are coming off a regular season that saw a record $411 million in visitor spending across Oxford, Mississippi, a city with a population of around 26,000. The Rebels also set single-game and regular-season attendance records this past season.
An average home-game weekend generates approximately $46.5 million in economic impact, according to 2024 figures from the university.
Jim Taylor, associate professor of nutrition and hospitality management at Ole Miss, has hinted that Saturday could be the biggest economic weekend that Oxford has seen in its history. Early estimates indicate the economic impact could exceed $74 million.
Hotels in Oxford start at least two to three times their regular rate and only go up from there. A quick glance at travel sites shows that a two-night stay near Oxford’s Square could range from a couple of thousand dollars to nearly $10,000 for the priciest listing.
Try to book a hotel for a two-day weekend stay after Christmas, and prices start in the lower $200s for the entire weekend.
Ole Miss Athletics has seemingly pulled out all the stops for entertainment as well. Country star Trace Adkins will sing the National Anthem, while an Apache and Black Hawk Helicopter flyover is also planned. That doesn’t even account for the recently announced drone show.
With an allotment of just 3,500 tickets, Tulane players know they will play in a hostile environment, but they are embracing the challenge.
“I think we’re just battle-tested,” Tulane linebacker Sam Howard said. “We know what we’re getting ourselves into. … Being there before, I think it gives us peace to go out there and just play.”
The CFP excitement impact is not just limited to Oxford, as Tulane fans have been gobbling up merchandise since the team’s playoff run came into focus after a Halloween night win in Memphis.
Campus Connection owner Dave Cariello said his store on Broadway has been swamped since the now-famous “RMFW” merchandise was released in early November. He said he fulfilled more than 1,000 shipping orders over the past 10 weeks.
“All I’ve talked about for the last week is, ‘Are you going to Oxford? Where are you sitting?’ Everybody is talking about it,” he said. “This is a little different than the Cotton Bowl when it felt like we took over that stadium, but I would like to think that if you’re watching on TV and Tulane does something good, I think you’ll hear us cheering.”
Regardless, the rematch against Ole Miss is poised to exceed the $64.1 million economic impact of the first game.
