Planning a Trip

There  is no one way to plan but I've found that there are a couple of rules to keep in mind.

In General

1. Always try for a "Two Birds with One Stone" if you can.  The most obvious are those where you have a Thursday night game within driving distance of a Saturday game.  You can also piggyback on a pro game but, honestly, how many pro stadiums do you really want to see?
2. Aim high and go after big games.  It doesn't always work out but that's ok.  Some "Big Games" don't end up living up to the hype because of poor play or scandal (I'm looking at you Bobby Petrino, you ruined our Arkansas trip:  see below) but some do (Cam Newton Iron Bowl, Penn State vs. Ohio State)

Lodging

1. Figure out what the lay of the land is with respect to how people travel to a given site.  Is it mainly a local crowd (most schools really) or do people come in strictly on RVs (Penn State), is there a mix (Arkansas).  Use all your resources as the demand for hotels will generally be high.   
2. Try and camp if you can as hotel prices will be inflated for game days. Most colleges are located in rural areas and camping is usually not far away. Most of it is great camping as well, sites right on the water.
3. If you're a pussy and don't want to camp lock in a convenient hotel for the day of the game close by the stadium. A lot of colleges are located in small towns and don't have the hotel capacity for the big games. Just log onto one of the hotel sites and grab a room.  Avoid pre-paying if possible and make sure you have a fair cancellation policy.  That way you have a fall back plan. The average cost of a gameday hotel in most college towns is between 150 to 200. This is about double the price it usually is.

Tickets

Some tips and tricks on getting tickets.  This is not an exact science....most games are pretty easy to get cheap tickets....except for those that aren't.  Out of all the games we have attended over the years we have failed only twice:  Penn State vs Notre Dame in 2006 and Penn State vs. Ohio State in 2011.  The Notre Dame game wasn't planned, spur of the moment based on a friend coming in town last minute so I don't get too upset about that one.  The Ohio State game was a market misread on my part.  Most face value tickets at college games are between 40 and 80 dollars.  I've been able to go to most games for between 10 and 30 dollars, but the big games can spike up to 150.  The most I paid was 250 for the Iron Bowl game with Cam Newton (and it was worth it just to see Alabama lose!).  If you don't care about sitting next to your friends you get about a 50% discount for purchasing a single.  I think it's worth it for the expensive games, you are going to be with your useless friends all weekend, you can sit apart during the actual game if it means sitting in the second row (like I did today for LSU @ Georgia)

General rule of thumb, if the game is in September you are probably better off grabbing tickets in advance, if it's October or later you should probably hold back as it's more likely one team will lose and drive the price down.

In Advance
1.  Start with a call to the box office of the home team.  Tell them you are visiting from out of town, this usually doesn't work but it's worth the 5 minute phone call.
2.  Call the visiting team's box office
3.  Stub Hub:  The best part about Stubhub is they let you know how many tickets are left for a given event so you can see the market expand or contract over time.  Start monitoring it a few weeks beforehand to get an idea of what the demand is.
4.  There are sometimes local version of Stubhub.  You need to vet them to make sure they aren't a scam but they can be useful.

Day of Game
1.  Avoid scalpers if you can, especially ones that look like they are drug users.  I've been burned a couple of times by scalpers.  Fool me once....
2.  If you do get burned by a scalper go directly to the box office, they will almost always sell you a ticket for face.
3.  In fact, check with the box office first as they generally release tickets day of the game, usually good tickets.  I sat 4th row for Boise State vs. Michigan State in 2012
4.  For any game that  is not considered "big" you can usually get tickets for 10 dollars or less just walking up to the stadium.  There is always someone with extras.  Big games can be very difficult and you generally will need to pay a premium on Stubhub but I've had good luck with Stubhub,their customer service is excellent.