How Much Is Your Favorite College Football Team Worth? - WSJ Ohio State retains its position as the most valuable program in college football WSJ By Andrew Beaton Jan. 10, 2016 7:51 p.m. ET On Monday night, Ohio State will relinquish its reign as college football’s national champion to Alabama or Clemson. But the Buckeyes have kept hold of a more lucrative title: college football’s most valuable program. Ohio State’s football team leads the country with a value of $946.6 million, according to an annual study by Ryan Brewer, an assistant professor of finance at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus. This is Ohio State’s second consecutive year atop the rankings after it overtook Texas, which places second at $885 million and has the nation’s largest revenue at $128 million. Michigan places a distant third at $811.3 million. Brewer analyzed each major program’s revenues and expenses and made cash-flow adjustments, risk assessments and growth projections to calculate what a college team would be worth on the open market, if it could be bought and sold like a professional franchise. Overall, the value of Football Bowl Subdivision teams has dropped 1.8% on average from last year despite cash flows increasing 18% and revenues growing 9.6% year over year. The reasons for the drop were concerns about concussions and football’s safety, declining youth football participation, lack of resolution over pay-for-play concerns, and the scheduling of the College Football Playoff, which saw ratings for the semifinals fall by nearly 40% when played on New Year’s Eve this year, as opposed to New Year’s Day. Ohio State’s value dipped from more than $1.1 billion last year while the Buckeyes are also the lone team now worth more than $900 million, down from four such teams a year ago. Alabama had the second highest revenue ($120 million) among FBS teams but ranks fifth on the list with a value of $694.9 million. Still, that’s nearly three times Clemson’s $237.5 valuation, which was the lowest of the four teams in the College Football Playoff and places 30th nationally. To put it in perspective, the Cincinnati Bengals were valued by Forbes at $871 million, $4 million less than Texas. The Detroit Lions, Buffalo Bills, Oakland Raiders and Atlanta Falcons are amongst the teams valued less than the Longhorns program 50 most valuable college football programs according to Wall Street Journal
The author calculates the value of the football team, if it could be sold on the open market. I gave a talk to the national DETC convention in the 90s in which I discussed the ramifications of the University of Montana selling its football team to a private party. My inspiration was the charming book "Rackety-Rax" (Joel Sayre, 1932) in which a New York Mafia don learns how much money Columbia University's football team is making. After discovering that he can't buy Columbia, he starts his own university, Canarsie U, and hires the best football players money can buy. The conclusion comes when Canarsie U plays Lake Forest U (owned by the Chicago mob) for the national championship.
My local university is not on that list yet it is planning to build a $250 million football stadium. They have raised $50 million so far but are going ahead with the development. They already have a stadium that is never sold out.
