Baylor ticket prices plunge on secondary market in wake of scandal

Tickets for Baylor may be easier to get on secondary markets this season

In the aftermath Baylor's sexual assault scandal, the football team's 2016 ticket prices on the secondary market have dropped 62 percent since earlier this spring, according to an analysis by TicketCity.

Baylor reported selling out its season tickets with a school-record 28,804 and a 98.2 percent renewal rate. Those renewals were due before the release of a report in May that said Baylor mishandled sexual-assault complaints, including some against football players. Coach Art Briles lost his job and several recruits and players left the school, creating negative attention for the university and uncertainty for the team in 2016 as the Bears kick off their season Friday night.

"Those tickets not renewed were quickly taken by those on the school's waiting list," Baylor executive associate athletic director Nick Joos said in an email.

But a different story is playing out on the secondary market. It can't simply be attributed to no Oklahoma and Texas on Baylor's home schedule this year, as they were in 2015 to help drive up demand for Baylor's tickets, which were among the hottest on the market.

TicketCity tracks sale prices from three different secondary market sources. According to TicketCity, Baylor's median price was $110.83 in May before the school released findings about the sexual assault investigation and announced it would fire Briles. The price fell to $45.55 over the next month and is now at $42, the second-lowest in the Big 12 ahead of only Kansas ($13).

TicketIQ, another ticketing agency, saw a similar decline and found Baylor ticket prices are down 46 percent since March 1.

"That decrease is much larger than we normally see," said Chris Matcovich, TicketIQ vice president of data and communications.

TicketCity and TicketIQ each report that the Ohio State-Oklahoma game on Sept. 17 is the most expensive ticket on the market at the moment. According to TicketCity, the priciest teams for the whole season are Ohio State ($194 median price), Notre Dame ($149) and Oklahoma ($143). The cheapest are Rice ($10), Utah State ($12) and Kansas ($13).