BLOOMINGTON — The Indiana Hoosiers are now the nation's #1 college football team after winning their first Big Ten title since 1967. Hoosier fans are now buying gear to commemorate the team's undefeated season.
Local apparel shop Homefield at Tracks in Bloomington prepared more than 100 Big Ten Championship shirts and sweatshirts directly after the Hoosiers won the conference title Saturday night. By Monday morning, the store only had one sweatshirt and one T-shirt left.
"There's now an empty rack," Homefield Apparel business manager Travis Nash said. "The last couple of sizes, I was watching in real time on my phone. I remember saying, 'One more small is gone, and we only have one left now."
Fans such as Tom Fry chose to buy a shirt from Homefield instead of following the Hoosiers to the Rose Bowl.
"I would love to go, but I was trying to go to Indianapolis too and the tickets to that game were just outlandish," Fry said.
The cheapest Rose Bowl ticket on Ticketmaster as of Monday was $404.60 per person, but that does not account for the cost of getting to Pasadena.
According to flight tracking website Skyscanner.com, the cheapest one-way direct flights from Indianapolis to Los Angeles in the days before the Rose Bowl all cost more than $600. The prices from IND to LAX, as tracked on Monday, were:
- $675 on December 27
- $779 on December 28
- $919 on December 29
- $699 on December 30
- $614 on December 31
Fry did not find a Big Ten Championship shirt, but is still satisfied with his purchase.
"They were already sold out, so the Cignetti shirt will have to do," Fry said. "All those Saturdays of disappointment are going to pay off."
Nash said Homefield will restock its Big Ten Championship shirts on Wednesday and will soon release Rose Bowl-specific IU merchandise for the occasion.
"Most of the people cheering for the team weren't alive the last time they won a Big Ten Championship," Nash said. "I think to myself, 'Are this many people actually coming to buy IU stuff? Is IU actually this good?' It's crazy."
