Haven't bought your Hawkeye tickets yet? Too bad

Hawkeye fans are experiencing what could be one of the worst internal struggles for college football fans.  Go to the game, or sell the ticket for a healthy profit?

“It's a seller's market,” said Derek Nohr, 33, Marion.  For the last five years, Nohr and his wife have had season tickets.  The tickets average $60 a game.

The university said for the first time in memory, all of the tickets to Kinnick are sold before the season. “We've got a terrific home schedule, the best fans in college football and a team that most experts are picking to do very well,” said Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta.

Athletics gets academic here, supply and demand has ticket prices starting to soar.

Justin Rolling, 22, Albany, IL, didn't buy early, and said he's prepared to pay online for a few games.  “I'd be willing to pay $300 for a ticket,” said Rolling.  “I paid $250 last year for Navy versus Notre Dame.”

The highlights of this season at Kinnick include games with Ohio State, Michigan State, Penn State, Wisconsin and Iowa State.

“Some people are willing to pay for experiences.  I'm more than happy to help them out if the price is right,” said Nohr.

While some games might demand higher prices, that's not the case for all of them.

The website, StubHub, reports the Iowa game with the highest grossing ticket sales on their site is the Oct. 2, game against Penn State.  Tickets for that game are averaging $181.  However,  Joellen Ferrer, Public Relations Manager for Stub Hub said that average price includes all tickets, in every section.

The highest average ticket price on StubHub so far is the Nov. 11, game against Ohio State – $232.

The Iowa Attorney General's office said there are no state laws that regulate or restrict scalping.  Iowa City doesn't have any local ordinances against scalping either, according to police.

Police do caution fans buying tickets, don't buy fake ones.  Sgt. Denise Brotherton, Iowa City Police, said they haven't had many reports of fake tickets in the past.  However, she said a few years ago they arrested people for selling fake tickets outside Kinnick.

University Ticket Office workers said there's no good way to tell if a ticket is fake, until its checked at the gate.  Brotherton said that's often too late for any recourse because the sellers usually leave right away.

Not all hope is lost for getting 100% guaranteed tickets.

“It's possible that a visiting team could return a few tickets during the course of the season,” said Pam Finke, Ticket Manager.  “But, at this time we have no tickets to sell for home games and I truly don't expect to have any as the season progresses.”