Where are the Hurricanes fans? Hoosiers appear to dominate at Hard Rock

The Miami Hurricanes may be playing at home for the College Football Playoff game against Indiana, but fan attendance at Miami Gardens’ Hard Rock Stadium is telling a different story.

Walking through the stadium, the sea of red Indiana jerseys drowns out the orange and green of Miami. A look at fans in seats shows that Hoosiers appear to occupy at least 60% of the stadium, with the remaining 40% being Hurricane fans.

Hard Rock Stadium has just more than 65,000 seats. Both the University of Miami and Indiana University received allotments of 20,000 tickets. University of Miami fans received 500 tickets from sponsor Taco Bell for free, while a lottery system was used to sell 500 more tickets to UM students. The face value of each ticket was $475. A limited number of tickets were also available for 2026 UM season-ticket holders or Hurricane Club members. The Hurricane Club is a fundraising organization that supports the university’s athletes.

Tickets in the resale market soared. Prices at Stubhub.com started at around $3,400. At vividseats.com, prices starting around $3,300. The most expensive ticket? That soared as of Monday to $77,000 on Stubhub, from $50,000 last week. Parking passes resold for about $700.

If UM fans were reselling their tickets to Hoosiers, they had a huge market. The Indiana University system has a bigger student population across its campuses than University of Miami. Indiana enrolls about 90,000 students, while UM, a private school, has about 20,000 students.

One Indiana fan, Kevin Curtis, drove 17 hours with a family member and two friends from Indiana to Miami.

“We’re just happy to be here,” he said.

But he wasn’t alone. Indiana fans dominated the tailgates in the hours leading up to the game.

But plenty of UM fans did make the effort show up. Dan Perry of Marathon said he secured his around $4,200 ticket just four hours before the game started. “My brother paid on his credit card,” Perry said. “I owe him some money.”

Miami Herald reporter Sofia Saric contributed to this report.

This story was originally published January 19, 2026 at 9:10 PM.

Michael Butler

Miami Herald

Michael Butler writes about minority business and trends that affect marginalized professionals in South Florida. As a business reporter for the Miami Herald, he tells inclusive stories that reflect South Florida’s diversity. Just like Miami’s diverse population, Butler, a Temple University graduate, has both local roots and a Panamanian heritage.