'Insane:' Ticket brokers amazed by get-in price for Michigan State-Michigan showdown

Welcome to "Rivalry Week" in college basketball.

Of course, when it comes to get-in prices for this week's Michigan State-Michigan clash, ticket brokers are having an awfully hard time coming up with anything that rivals the flurry of activity leading up to Sunday's game at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor.

"You're getting to uncharted territory a little bit," said Brian Posey, owner of The Ticket Machine, based in mid-Michigan.

"This is higher than the get-in (price) for the football game, legitimately."

The game, featuring No. 7 Michigan (23-3) and No. 10 Michigan State (21-5), is, of course, officially sold out, leaving fans to jump into the secondary market.

At StubHub as of Wednesday afternoon, the lowest-priced ticket was around $200, and almost all the tickets listed at under $200 were singles. Two or more seats together, typically, was running much higher, and that doesn't include all the associated fees.

In the lower bowl, few tickets were listed at cheaper than $300, with many running in the $400 and even $500 range.

It's not the $2,000 that was the floor price for Wednesday night's North Carolina-Duke game in Durham, N.C., but for these parts, it's remarkable, Posey said.

The prices are running higher than the rematch, set for East Lansing's Breslin Center in two weeks. There are a couple of reasons for that, Posey said. One, the rematch is still a ways out, and two, Breslin Center seats more, 15,000 to Crisler's 13,751.

Posey said The Ticket Machine has a get-in price of $125 to $150 or so for the rematch, which is the regular-season finale for both teams, on Saturday, March 9. At StubHub, there are no non-student tickets for less than $100.

That's still extraordinary, he said.

"Usually it's maybe a $75 ticket or a $100 ticket, but certainly nothing like this," Posey said. "This is insane."

There's another local rivalry game that's going to pack the house this weekend, when Detroit Mercy travels to Oakland on Saturday. An Oakland spokesman said early Wednesday afternoon that about 200 tickets remained, mostly bleacher seats.

The O'Rena seats 4,000, and the record capacity is 4,123, also for a game against Detroit Mercy in January 2017.

Both Detroit Mercy (10-17) and Oakland (12-16) are looking to secure their spots in the Horizon League tournament, while Titans sharp-shooter Antoine Davis could make history. With four more made 3's, he'll tie Steph Curry's NCAA freshman record of 122.

tpaul@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @tonypaul1984