On Jan. 12, 2026, the University of Miami sent out a ticket link for students to purchase tickets to the National Championship. The tickets were priced at $488, and they sold out in under five minutes.
After the Miami Hurricanes won the Fiesta Bowl and secured their place in the College Football Playoffs, many students scrambled for last-minute tickets. An email sent out on Jan. 12 informed students that they would have the opportunity to purchase student tickets that same day.
“You have access to the National Championship ticket on-sale. All students are limited to one (1) ticket per account,” read an email from Hurricanes Football. “To purchase, you must be logged into your student ticket account in order to access the on-sale. Reminder: Student CFP tickets are non-transferable and must be used by the student who purchased them.”
According to the Miami Hurricanes’ website, student tickets are included in undergraduate tuition, allotted through the mandatory athletic fee. Most students were led to believe that they would be allowed free tickets to the National Championship due to this clause.
“Each team in the College Football Playoff Championship Game receives 500 free student tickets courtesy of CFP sponsor Taco Bell,” University Athletics wrote in a statement to The Miami Hurricane. “We received more than 4,000 student requests for the CFP Championship Game and allocated the 500 tickets based on 2025 home football game attendance…Once we qualified for the CFP Championship Game, we released 500 additional upper-level seats strictly for students at the face value ticket cost.”
University Athletics went on to explain that all students were placed in a virtual waiting room then selected to purchase tickets at random. In total, one thousand tickets were distributed to UM students, and none were rescinded.
“It was definitely a hefty price,” said Ella Mead, a UM freshman who was one of the lucky few to secure a ticket. “But it pales in comparison to what the non-student tickets were selling for online.”
On StubHub, ticket prices range from $3,000 to $65,000.
Tickets became accessible at 12 p.m. and sold out by 12:05 p.m, though some students reportedly were able to find tickets after refreshing for thirty minutes.
An anonymous post to UM’s YikYak feed wrote, “Like this if you didn’t get a ticket.”
The post got more than 1,300 likes.