Can Memphis football become the best bargain in town again? | Giannotto

The idea, oddly enough, originated at Boise State — the marquee opponent on Memphis football’s non conference home schedule this season.

Buy a $60 ticket to the Tigers’ season opener against Bethune-Cookman in less than two weeks. If Memphis wins, you get a free ticket to the Tigers’ second home game against Navy. If Memphis wins again, you get a free ticket to the Boise State game two weeks after that. It continues on and on through the entire home schedule.

If Memphis wins, you get a free ticket to the next home game.

If Memphis wins. That’s the best part.

Being invested in “if Memphis wins …”

It was nice to be reminded of that again, after weeks of excitement, angst and – once the Pac-12 collapsed – disappointment yet again. To be given a reason to gamble on the Tigers – in a reasonably low-stakes manner. To remember that sports fans, the most loyal and crazed among us, agree to gamble with their emotions every time they turn on a game – perhaps no more so than on a college football Saturday.

The leaders of college sports are trying to ruin all that, of course. They’re testing our faith, our reasons for making this enterprise the multi-billion dollar behemoth it has become.

But if Memphis wins, if it wins a lot, it should still be fulfilling. It needs to be, or else the program is doomed regardless of who’s coaching.

We’re about to begin the last season of college football as we know it. Before Texas and Oklahoma go to the SEC, before USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington head east to the Big Ten, and before the Big 12 brings in Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah. Before the Pac-12 ceases to exist. Before the College Football Playoff is supposed to expand to 12 teams

It’s already starting, really. Just this week, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey became the most prominent voice to call for the format of the new CFP to be changed in light of what happened to the Pac-12.

To think where that could leave Memphis is understandably crushing. It keeps happening. It doesn’t feel right. Why even bother anymore? It appears a lot aren't.

Last week, the Memphis athletic department said it had sold about 11,000 season tickets for this season, with about 1,000 to 1,200 more expected before the opener on Sept. 2.

That’s down from an announced program-high of 22,500 for the 2017 season and about 20,000 season tickets in 2019. There are an array of factors for the decline, some within Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield’s control and some nobody anticipated.

It further heightened the scrutiny on Silverfield, who continues to pop up on national “hot seat” lists.

So the athletic department’s "Win Together" ticket offer seemed to arrive right on time, a welcome respite from that barrage of bad news. I’m not sure if it’ll actually work, if loads of people who haven’t been buying season tickets will jump at this opportunity. But it got people thinking about what could be again.

This kind of promotion would have been taboo even just a few years ago. University of Memphis asking its fan to front more money than they need to at first to get better value on the back end. The student-athlete myth the NCAA stood by for so long wouldn’t have allowed it.

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But those pretensions are almost all gone now. The pursuit of money was too much for them. Memphis is smart to lean into that, to get people thinking how far $60 – and these Tigers – can really go.

It costs $20 to get in the door for a Memphis football game at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. There are seven home games. There’s value to be had with this deal. The Tigers will be favored in the first two matchups with Bethune-Cookman and Navy. There’s a decent chance you break even and get to see Memphis face Boise State in a clash of Group of Five programs with big aspirations.

If the Tigers were to win that, a Friday night game against AAC preseason favorite Tulane awaits.

By that point, it’d be a bargain.

You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis football, Ryan Silverfield can make Tigers a bargain again