Hope you don't mind me answering even though I'm not a Buckeye fan, but basically most of my friends and family and business partner are.
I don't know anyone that traveled to all three, but I know two groups that went to the final two games and 3 different groups that went to the championship game. A couple of them got ahead of the game and booked the flight prior to beating Texas. Their flights were under $200 from Cleveland. Those that waited until after the Texas had flight costs above $800. Hotel costs weren't cheap from my understanding either. 7-$800 per night and they weren't exactly high end hotels. I don't know a single person that paid under $1500 on the secondary market. I do know a Dr. couple that are alumni and they were able to get the tickets quite a bit cheaper directly, but that was the one off.
My business partner went with a group and they had a chance to get all you can eat and drink tickets in something called Molly's Club and they were $1500. They balked at it thinking they could wait a day or two and get them cheaper and ended up costing them $500 per ticket for worse seats that didn't include food and drink. Not cheap.
That being said, when i priced out going to see Michigan last year with my wife, it looked like it was going to run 5-6k for flight, hotel and tickets. I couldn't justify it and it sounds like the OSU groups that I know that went down ran a little over 3k per person for the trip.
That is EXPENSIVE and one of the things I don't like about the CFP.
For reference, I went to:
- The 1997 Rose Bowl (1996 season) against ASU
- the 2002 BCSNCG in the Fiesta Bowl against Miami, FL
- The 2006 BCSNCG in the Fiesta Bowl against Florida
- The 2007 BCSNCG in the Sugar Bowl against LSU
- The 2014 Orange Bowl (2013 season) against Clemson
- The 2014 CFP Semi-Final in the Sugar Bowl against Bama
The Rose Bowl trip was a family trip with my parents and brother so I didn't pay for that. We drove.
The 2002 NCG trip was a few years after I graduated and with my brother who was still in school so we did it on the cheap to the extent possible. We flew to Vegas and drove to the game. In Tempe we stayed with a friend of mine.
The 2006 NCG trip was a package that I bought from the school. I bought the single occupancy version because I went alone.
The 2007 NCG trip was my brother and I again, we drove. We met up with a friend in Tuscaloosa (had ribs at Dreamland) then drove the rest of the way to NOLA.
The 2014 Orange Bowl was with my then girlfriend. We drove.
The 2014 CFP Semi-Final trip was with my (then girlfriend, now) wife. We drove and bought the "gameday package" from the alumni association. The gameday packaged included the game ticket and also a whole day of activities starting at 8 or 9 am with a riverboat ride on the Mississippi River.
The riverboat ride was cool, they played Hang on Sloopy on the Colipe (sp?). Archie, Brutus, and the Cheerleaders were on the boat with us.
The "gameday package" wasn't cheap but it included a lot of cool stuff like the boat. Also within that:
When we arrived we got checked in and got bracelets then immediately encountered a waitress who asked if we wanted a Mimosa or Bloody Mary. I replied that it was a little early to start drinking. She then said the magic word, "it's included" to which I replied "I'll take two".
Then there was an extensive breakfast buffet on the boat.
The old way you had options. You could buy an expensive package or do-it-yourself on the cheap. Now you are pretty much stuck with an expensive package because as
@SuperMario 's post referenced, airfare is a freaking fortune when you buy five days out.
