ATHENS – Georgia’s matchup at top-ranked Texas has created prime-time excitement among UGA students, but most will have to channel that energy in front of a TV screen when the ESPN broadcast kicks off at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Sky-high costs, a 15-hour drive and a lack of available tickets kept many Georgia students from making the trip to Austin, Texas. A ticket into DKR-Memorial Stadium has been a hot commodity for months, and its cheapest prices have climbed well past $300 in the final days before the top-five matchup.
The ticket combined with the gas bill for a thousand-mile drive sets up the financial kicker for many college budgets: hotel prices.
Along with college football’s top game of the weekend, Austin also hosts the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix, featuring concerts from headline artists Sting and Eminem. The average Austin hotel room was booking at nearly $500 per night.
Georgia’s away schedule was loaded with top-10 matchups, but not all elite road games are created equal, especially for college students. The Bulldogs’ other big-game trips to Alabama and Ole Miss combine for a rough total of 677 miles from campus to campus.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s 994-mile trip this weekend could be the furthest it has ever traveled for a true SEC road game.
That’s what makes this weekend so special for four UGA students who finalized a trip to Georgia-Texas earlier this week.
UGA seniors Andrew Correa, Nathan Duke, Matthew Fluker and Bennett Ulm left their house on South Milledge Avenue on Thursday afternoon for a self-described “Last Ride” journey to Austin.
Correa and Fluker got tickets months ago from Georgia’s student ticket lottery ($206 each) while Ulm and Duke were offered tickets for a steeper price on Tuesday.
“You either had to pay a lot or get really lucky,” Fluker said. “That’s kind of how it worked.”
Correa said he heard of many students who were awarded tickets from the lottery before deciding the trip was unfeasible. Duke said he only knew of four students outside of his group that were going without parents.
“And that brother is an orientation leader,” Correa said. “He knows everybody.”
Even with cheaper tickets bought straight from UGA, Correa and Fluker know the trip would not have been possible without lucking into some savings along the way.
The four planned a stop in Duke’s hometown of Americus, Georgia, to switch from his 14 mpg Ford F-150 to a much more efficient vehicle, his mother’s Nissan Armada.
The group planned to spend Thursday night with some of Correa’s family near New Orleans before finishing the drive to Texas the next day.
Friday night’s stay is also free, as Ulm’s friend’s grandparents offered their house in Westlake, Texas, three hours from DKR-Memorial Stadium.
“It all just kind of fell into place, honestly,” Fluker said. “It made it a lot more possible, because hotels were going for who-knows-what.”
The group still made several sacrifices in order to make the trip. All four mentioned some type of schoolwork that needed completion as they traveled, including two online tests.
Duke said he did not want to spend more than 10 minutes at home when switching vehicles and added that the time in New Orleans would be quick, too.
“If we can get there at 9 p.m., get a legit night’s rest and be in Austin by 5 o’clock tomorrow afternoon, we’ll be fine,” Correa said on Thursday.
All that efficiency on the ride to Texas pales in comparison to their plan of 15 straight hours returning to Georgia to make it back in time for Monday classes.
As for the majority of students who could not make the trip, the group agreed that many plan to head home to watch the game with family and bring winter clothes back to Athens.
“I think Athens is going to be kind of dead,” Duke said.
The SEC’s expansion in membership and square miles could have significantly affected UGA’s ability to send as many students to Texas as it did to Alabama three weeks ago.
But for the few who can go, it offers a unique opportunity that Georgia students have never experienced before.
“First time we’re playing Texas at Texas, first time they’re in the SEC, it’s No. 1 versus No. 4, it’s going to be an unbelievable game,” Fluker said. “It’s worth making some elaborate and extravagant plans to go see it.”
