The Most Valuable College Football Teams

[shetuck]

Forbes: The Most Valuable College Football Teams

I think it's overly simplistic to value college football programs simply based on revenues and profits, but I suppose you have to start somewhere (if at all).

I'd be inclined to try and also factor in the program's incremental value-add in other respects. That could cover a lot of other positive economic effects that ripple out directly from a particular football program; e.g., vested revenue from merchandising that occurs outside the "local community", a portion of the ad revenues from regular and post season games, a portion of the revenues of any given player's subsequent successful participation at the professional level, etc.

Based Forbes' system, tOSU gets ranked at #11. ND comes in first, and TSUN is at #5.

The Most Valuable College Football Teams

Peter J. Schwartz
11.20.07, 10:00 AM ET

In Pictures: Ranking The 20 Most Valuable College Football Teams

In the past few years, there's been a big push by major college football teams to increase revenue through massive stadium expansions, lucrative premium seating and rich sponsorship and broadcast deals--the same blueprint the National Football League used for decades to create billion-dollar franchises.

The game plan is working in college, albeit on a much smaller scale: Last year, 10 college football teams raked in at least $45 million in revenues--among them, the University of Notre Dame, University of Georgia, Ohio State and Auburn University--compared to none five years ago.

Of course, college teams aren't sold in the open market like NFL teams. But the revenue they generate is extremely valuable. Our second annual ranking of the most valuable teams in college football is based on what the football programs contribute to four important beneficiaries: their university (the value of contributions from football to the institution for academic purposes, including scholarship payments for football players); athletic department (the net profit generated by the football program ultimately retained by the department); conference (the distribution of bowl game revenue); and local communities with a vested interest in the team (incremental spending in the county during home-game weekends). Our system weighs those four elements in declining order. This year's rankings were expanded from 15 to 20 teams.

In Pictures: Ranking The 20 Most Valuable College Football Teams

Their use of the word "dubious" to describe our expenses is, well... umm... dubious.

Ohio State University, Buckeyes

Value: $71 million
Profit: $26.6 million
Conference: BigTen
Head Coach: Jim Tressel

At $59.1 million, the Buckeyes were first among BigTen teams in revenue last season, but, dubiously, also led all of college football in expenses. The Ohio State Athletic Department spent $32.5 million on football, 71% of which happened on game days.

[rocketman]

It's a known fact that a very large chunk of that $32.5 million is spent on nacho cheese. And you now what? Worth every penny. We have standards to uphold at Ohio Stadium, damnit. I think we have a few posters on here that can attest to this.

[Dryden]

I wonder what skull sessions cost?

[mross34]

The primary factor this is ignoring is the contributions each school makes to their TV deals. If OSU were to leave the Big 10 and their huge TV deal, it would cripple them. However, if South Carolina, ranked two spots lower, were to leave the SEC, I don't think they'd skip a beat.

[shetuck]

Originally Posted by Dryden

I wonder what skull sessions cost?

Not exactly sure, but it's certainly something significantly less than paying West Virginia U to drop their lawsuit.

[Dryden]

Originally Posted by shetuck

Not exactly sure, but it's certainly something significantly less than paying West Virginia U to drop their lawsuit.

I don't know ... Opening St. John Arena for a few hours, plus all the electric & utilities that entails, plus scoreboard operation, ushers, security, the setup, then the cleanup, etc, all without any admission revenue or concession sales. Eight home games of that can't be cheap.

[TheIronColonel]

People read Forbes? I thought they closed shop back when everyone realized they couldn't tell their ass from a hole in the ground. Guess not.