Tonight, Ohio State will relinquish its reign as college football’s national champion to Alabama or Clemson.
But as The Wall Street Journal reports, 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.
Though the LSU Tigers’ valuation on this year’s list fell to $612.3 million, down from $659.2 million on last year’s list, LSU retained its No. 9 overall ranking on this year’s list.
Overall, the value of Football Bowl Subdivision, or FBS, 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.
