NCAA Tournament: How much would it cost to watch the Gamecocks live in every round of the Tourney?

March Madness is here. Every conference championship wraps up on Sunday, and the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee will be deciding where and when every tournament team will play in their pursuit of a national championship. In the women’s tournament, South Carolina basketball is guaranteed to be the top seed, but the Committee will reveal on Sunday which teams stand in their way of back-to-back national championships. The Selection Show will be broadcast on ESPN and the ESPN App at 8:00.

NCAA Tournament tickets are sold in various ways. Fans can purchase “individual session” tickets or “full session” tickets. The individual session tickets allow fans to watch two games, usually back-to-back. Full session (sometimes called “full strip” tickets allow fans to watch every game at a particular venue.

So what might it cost a rabid South Carolina basketball fan with too much time and some disposable income to watch their favorite team live in each round of the tournament? The short answer is: a lot. Let’s take a theoretical walk through the NCAA Tournament. (All prices are based on ticket resale website’s current numbers, and those numbers can and will likely change. The prices will only include ticket costs as travel, parking, food, etc. will vary from person to person.)

In the women’s tournament, the early rounds are held at the top-seeded team’s home arena, so rounds one and two will be played at Colonial Life Arena. These tickets are sold out and only available through ticket resale sites. The cheapest tickets for individual sessions in round one are about $100, and the cheapest full session tickets are priced in the $250s. Once it is known in which session the Gamecocks will be playing, the individual session price will rise. Round two’s prices start at $150.

Past this point, whichever teams advance in the Gamecocks’ regional will play in Greenville in the Sweet Sixteen and the Elite Eight. Amazingly, if you buy now, individual session Sweet Sixteen tickets at Bon Secours Wellness Arena start at just $20, though this will not last. For midcourt seats in the upper deck, those prices double. Lower bowl seats range from $60 to $280 depending on how close to the floor and midcourt the seats are located.

These prices will likely increase by the hour as long as South Carolina remains in the Tournament as expected. Full session tickets for Greenville’s Sweet Sixteen start in the high-$200s as they are seemingly only available in more expensive seating areas. When Carolina officially advances past the Round of 32, these ticket prices will rise, and once it becomes clear which session will include the Gamecocks, those individual session prices will climb even more. Matchups against teams like UConn, Stanford, and Tennessee would also command higher costs for seats.

Elite Eight seats are significantly cheaper than one might expect as there is a greater risk involved in buying them. While it is likely that Gamecock fans would still get to see their team play if they buy Elite Eight tickets, nothing is guaranteed. If South Carolina were to get eliminated, the tickets would not be refunded. As of now, Elite Eight tickets for one game in Greenville are starting at $50, but that number will jump up quickly with each Carolina victory.

The Final Four will be played in Dallas, Texas, and the ticket pricing is much like the Elite Eight in that the number is much lower today than as the date approaches. If purchased today, a ticket to all three games of the Final Four can be bought for just under $200. An individual session ticket can be purchased for about $100, and a championship-specific ticket costs just under $150. However, with each passing round, the prices will rise.

All-in-all, Gamecocks fans could watch their team play every game of the tournament for right about $550 in ticket costs if they do not care about premium seats and are correctly able to gamble on which session they think the garnet and black will be playing. Playing it safe by splurging for full session tickets would increase the price to just under $650. Of course, these numbers are based on if the tickets were bought right now on the day before Selection Sunday. These numbers will change, and most of those changes will be increases.

In years past, the women’s NCAA Tournament has seen tickets double in price when purchased after matchups and sessions have been announced. There can be an even bigger price hike for the Final Four. There is no way of knowing for certain how much someone would have to pay if they waited to buy tickets, but it can be safely assumed that $1000 would be a safe bet.

Women’s tournament tickets certainly are more reasonably priced than tickets for the men’s games. However, even in the best-case scenario, they would still cost a lot of dough. There is no shame in watching at home from the comfort of your couch and saving some money in the process. The Gamecocks have a real shot at making history over the next three weeks, so let’s all enjoy it, whether it is in person or on television.