Ohio State, Texas, Michigan Top Most Valuable College Football Team Rankings

Ohio State may have fallen short of repeating as national champion, but the Buckeyes will retain a claim among college football’s elite as the nation’s most valuable program.  

The Buckeyes are worth close to an astounding $1 billion, according to a study by financial professor Ryan Brewer at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus (h/t Andrew Beaton of the Wall Street Journal).

Last year the Buckeyes surpassed Texas, which this year placed a distant second at $855.05 million to Ohio State’s $946.61 million. Michigan ranked third at $811.3 million.    

Here is a look at the 10 most valuable programs:   

Rank	Program	Value
1	Ohio State	$946,610,000
2	Texas	$855,050,000
3	Michigan	$811,300,000
4	Notre Dame	$723,590,000
5	Alabama	$694,870,000
6	Oklahoma	$674,340,000
7	Florida	$670,860,000
8	Georgia	$636,440,000
9	LSU	$612,300,000
10	Penn State	$481,390,000

The survey was created to gauge what each program would be worth if it could be bought as a professional franchise. Valuations are determined by revenues and expenses, with cash-flow adjustments, risk assessments and growth projections, per Beaton.

As high a ceiling as these figures may seem, the overall value of the FBS has dropped an average of 1.8 percent, which Beaton elaborated on:

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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. 

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Alabama finished with the second-highest revenue at $120 million with a total value of $694.9 million, the highest in the SEC. That figure is almost three times higher than its national title game counterpart, Clemson, which is worth a reported $237.5 million, 30th in the FBS.

These mind-boggling figures for amateur athletics encompass just how strong the following has become for FBS football. 

To create context, Ohio State is worth more than half of the NBA’s 30 franchises, per Forbes.

This is in an era when most Olympic hopefuls—fellow amateurs—are so strapped for cash that Team USA launched a registry last year to help fundraising efforts to ensure qualified athletes can actually reach the Games in Rio de Janeiro this August.

But the buck clearly doesn’t stop here. Even in a decline, college football is still as prevalent as ever, and these values don’t appear like they'll dwindle any time soon.