Imagine watching two freight trains tear toward each other on a single track, collision imminent.

Now imagine watching that for nine weeks and you'll have an idea of how college football fans, and especially those of the University of Alabama and LSU, have felt for the entire 2011 season.

The game is being called a semifinal to the Bowl Championship Series title game, a designation recently reserved for the Southeastern Conference Championship Game in early December. And it's a game of unprecedented importance even though both unbeaten teams will still have three regular season games left to play after Saturday's matchup.

But it is one of the rare occasions where the BCS-ranked No. 1 and No. 2 teams will meet in a regular season game. As such, it is likely one of the most valuable regular season tickets in the history of college football.

Two websites, FanSnap.com and TiqIQ.com, are search engines devoted to listing sporting event tickets sold by the major ticket sites including eBay, StubHub and TicketNetwork.

FanSnap CEO Mike Janes said the average asking price of about 3,000 available UA-LSU tickets from their network of sellers peaked Wednesday at $804. On Thursday, the price fell for the first time in a month to $789.

Janes said each season he keeps a Top 20 list of the hottest tickets based on their average price. The UA-LSU ticket is easily No. 1 with the No. 2 ticket, Oklahoma-Oklahoma St., far behind at $614.

"From the beginning of the year, this has been one of the top 20 hottest games," Janes said. "Up until about a month ago, they were averaging at $440. From then until now, it's been a straight skyrocket as each team has done well."

TiqIQ's network shows 1,104 tickets available and CEO Jesse Lawrence said Thursday the average asking price was $700.

"Since Sept. 26, we've seen the price increase by 65 percent. The price rose 33 percent the last week alone after both teams won and remained undefeated," Lawrence said. "At this point, this ticket price is about 5 percent higher than the current asking price of the SEC Championship Game."

Why the sudden skyrocket in prices? Lawrence said it amounts to fans knowing the fickle nature of college football all too well.

"One loss can mean the difference between a national championship season and an afterthought," he said. "I think that until people were pretty clear that this was going to be a one-two matchup with BCS implications, people held off a little bit."

Lawrence said the get-in price, the lowest price of all available tickets on TiqIQ has increased by 100 percent since the beginning of the season to $390 - $10 cheaper than the average price at that point.

For comparison's sake, FanSnap's peak price of the same matchup in 2009 was $410 as Alabama marched toward its first national championship in 17 years. And Janes said last year the average price for the game was $385.

"This is the No. 1 game in recent history by far," Janes said. "The hottest game last season was the Notre Dame game at Yankee Stadium, and that was only $500."

Only $500.

Apart from setting price records, Janes said this year's UA-LSU ticket has also defied the laws of economics.

"Any economics student will tell you that as supply increases, the price typically decreases," Janes said. "But with this game, where over the last two weeks the number of tickets have double from 1,500 to 3,000 ­- and prices have continued to increase."

Janes and Lawrence said the phenomenon is likely linked to more fans being motivated to sell because of the high asking prices. They said the ticket sellers probably feel like they have nothing to lose.

"Every fan has their price. When all of a sudden a game gets to the point where you could pay your rent or a number of other bills by selling a single ticket, you've got to take a good look at it," he said.

"On the other hand, these fans still really want to go, so unless you're going to give them the really big number they're asking for, they're prepared to hang onto the tickets and go to the game themselves."

Because so many fans will likely choose to attend the game should they be unable to sell their tickets, Lawrence said he expects the asking prices to remain around $700 up to the day of the game, unlike most tickets which drop as game time nears and sellers are forced to compromise.

Janes said he feels prices will likely drop, but not to the extent that most games do.

"You've got 3,000 tickets available out of a stadium of more than 100,000, so it's already a thin market. There will be lower prices as kickoff nears but on the other hand, those tickets will be picked over," he said.

He also warned fans looking to score that last-second deal.

"If you've got your eye on a particular set of tickets or a particular section, it's going to be a lot like going to Walmart after Christmas," he said.

"You're going to get better prices, but the shelves are going to be pretty empty."