Texas A&M's loss against Miami causes freefall in demand for Cotton Bowl tickets

Texas A&M's devastating home loss to the Miami Hurricanes in their home playoff game a week and a half ago was a disappointment not only for Aggie fans, but— apparently— also for the Cotton Bowl. As of yesterday afternoon, tonight's showdown between the Hurricanes and the Ohio State Buckeyes has a surprisingly low level of demand for tickets, as Robert Behrens observed on X.

Behrens makes a point about how the hosting structure for Playoff games needs to be shifted— a point that should be appreciated, of course (just think about how electric quarter and semifinals would be on campus), given that both teams in this matchup are having to travel over 1000 miles to get to this game.

The Buckeyes were forced to pick between Dallas and Miami— literally, the Hurricanes' home stadium— when considering where they wanted to play their quarterfinal, so they made an obvious choice. But this also shows that the freefall in demand we're seeing is directly attributable to the Aggies' loss.

Texas A&M's loss means interest in Cotton Bowl attendance has plummeted

If Texas A&M had won against the Hurricanes— and in a game with such close margins, this was an eminent possibility— then this would not be an issue in the slightest. Aggies from around the state and country would be flocking to Dallas for this game, and it may even have reached the heights of demand that we saw in the game at Kyle Field.

Instead, we will see a tepid New Year's Eve environment for what actually promises to be a good game between these two teams. It will be a crowd that will no doubt fail to live up to the level of game that we will see this evening.

The Aggies bringing home a win against the Hurricanes would have evaded this outcome, of course. You can bet that it wasn't just A&M fans falling to the floor when Marcel threw that interception at the end of the game— the Cotton Bowl brass had to be doing the same.