Those free championship game tickets? Better have some cash

Students wanting to claim a free ticket to the College Football Playoff championship game had to front quite a bit of money in order to participate in a drawing.

According to a report by the Greenville News, entrants into a lottery for free national championship game student tickets at Alabama and Clemson, 500 at each school, had to put down a $550 deposit.

“That’s a lot for a college kid,” Clemson junior Ryan Simmons told the Greenville News. “Now if I win a ticket, most of my money I saved up I ended up putting into that.”

Those who do not receive a ticket in the drawing will have the deposit refunded in full. For those lucky enough to snag a ticket, the deposit is refundable in full in person following Monday’s game in Tampa, but only in person at the game site. The free tickets are for a spot in each team’s student section.

In other words, those who win a ticket but fail to show up in Tampa will be out $550.

Registration for the ticket drawing closed Tuesday afternoon.

If the $550 deposit seems steep, the ticket resale market for the national championship game has a higher starting price. As of 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, ticket reseller StubHub listed its least expensive ticket for Monday game at $900.

In other national championship game news, AL.com has a feature on Alabama running back Bo Scarbrough, who finds an unusual way to take a break from the football grind.

Turns out he’s a fan of Lifetime, a cable channel marketed to women, and the murder mysteries the channel airs.

“If you watch one show on there, you’re going to want to watch another one,” Scarbrough told the website. “My family gets mad at me sometimes. They’ll be watching football, and I’ll come in and flip the channel to Lifetime. It’s my getaway from football time.”

This story was originally published January 4, 2017 at 11:51 AM with the headline "Those free championship game tickets? Better have some cash."