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    College sports valuations: Top 75 athletic programs

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    College sports valuations: Top 75 athletic programs

    75 most valuable college athletic programs: Here's who made the cut

    With major college sports programs collectively generating billions in revenue each year, private investors are looking to get a piece of the action.

    But how much is a college sports program worth?

    It’s a question CNBC set out to answer after speaking with people in the private equity world who are seeking to invest in college sports.

    Below, CNBC ranks the 75 most valuable college athletic programs. The rankings exclude military academies and are limited to schools that participate in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision, or FBS, which tend to attract top players.

    Ohio State University is the most valuable athletic program, worth an estimated $1.32 billion. The Buckeyes had $280 million in revenue in 2023, the most of any school. Other factors that helped propel the Buckeyes to the top of the rankings are an alumni base of over 600,000, a fan base of more than 11 million, boosters that donated nearly $60 million last year, and a football team that routinely has attendance of over 100,000 at its games.

    It isn’t surprising that the top of the list is dominated by SEC and Big Ten schools — due largely to each conference’s massive media rights deals.

    In aggregate, the SEC is worth roughly $13.3 billion, an average of about $832 million per school; followed by the Big Ten at about $13.2 billion, an average of roughly $734 million per school; the ACC at roughly $10 billion, or about $558 million per school; and the Big 12, at roughly $6.7 billion, or about $420 million per school.

    The information used to compile the valuations comes courtesy of Jason Belzer, publisher of AthleticDirectorU, who has advised universities on name, image and likeness deals and is now doing the same for athletic departments seeking private equity. AthleticDirectorU has an expansive database of college athletic program financials and information.

    The revenue figures are from the Department of Education’s Equity in Athletics Data Analysis and the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for the fiscal year 2023. The list is reflective of the current enterprise value of each program, starting with a base revenue multiple of four for all institutions, and then adjusting the multiple for variables, including conference affiliation, estimated NIL spend, school subsidies, number of alumni and other factors that can catalyze future revenue growth and profitability. 

    CNBC and Belzer also incorporated the expertise of several people knowledgeable about athletic program valuations to determine the rankings, who requested anonymity in order to discuss details of the programs.

    College Athletics Valuations 2024

    Rank Program Valuation Revenue Conference City Public/Private
    1. Ohio State University $1.32B $280M Big Ten Columbus, OH public
    2. University of Texas at Austin $1.28B $271M SEC Austin, TX public
    3. Texas A&M University $1.26B $279M SEC College Station, TX public
    4. University of Michigan $1.06B $230M Big Ten Ann Arbor, MI public
    5. University of Alabama $978M $200M SEC Tuscaloosa, AL public
    6. University of Notre Dame $969M $224M ACC Notre Dame, IN private
    7. University of Georgia $950M $210M SEC Athens, GA public
    8. University of Nebraska $943M $205M Big Ten Lincoln, NE public
    9. University of Tennessee $940M $202M SEC Knoxville, TN public
    10. University of Oklahoma $928M $199M SEC Norman, OK public
    11. Penn State University $924M $202M Big Ten University Park, PA public
    12. University of Southern California $923M $212M Big Ten Los Angeles, CA private
    13. Louisiana State University $916M $200M SEC Baton Rouge, LA public
    14. University of Florida $865M $189M SEC Gainesville, FL public
    15. University of Wisconsin $838M $198M Big Ten Madison, WI public
    16. Clemson University $800M $196M ACC Clemson, SC public
    17. University of Oregon $780M $151M Big Ten Eugene, OR public
    18. University of Arkansas $776M $167M SEC Fayetteville, AR public
    19. University of Kentucky $775M $174M SEC Lexington, KY public
    20. Auburn University $772M $195M SEC Auburn, AL public
    21. University of Iowa $747M $167M Big Ten Iowa City, IA public
    22. Michigan State University $740M $171M Big Ten East Lansing, MI public
    23. Stanford University $687M $180M ACC Stanford, CA private
    24. Florida State University $673M $170M ACC Tallahassee, FL public
    25. University of Illinois $665M $148M Big Ten Champaign, IL public
    26. Duke University $659M $153M ACC Durham, NC private
    27. University of Washington $658M $152M Big Ten Seattle, WA public
    28. Indiana University $653M $145M Big Ten Indianapolis, IN public
    29. University of Mississippi $651M $142M SEC Oxford, MS public
    30. University of South Carolina $650M $160M SEC Columbia, SC public
    31. University of Miami $639M $160M ACC Coral Gables, FL private
    32. University of Minnesota $637M $149M Big Ten Minneapolis, MN public
    33. Texas Tech University $619M $147M Big 12 Lubbock, TX public
    34. University of Louisville $595M $143M ACC Louisville, KY public
    35. University of Missouri $590M $142M SEC Columbia, MO public
    36. Purdue University $567M $124M Big Ten West Lafayette, IN public
    37. University of Kansas $553M $128M Big 12 Lawrence, KS public
    38. Vanderbilt University $551M $125M SEC Nashville, TN private
    39. Texas Christian University $542M $149M Big 12 Fort Worth, TX private
    40. UNC-Chapel Hill $539M $139M ACC Chapel Hill, NC public
    41. University of Arizona $532M $143M Big 12 Tucson, AZ public
    42. University of Pittsburgh $524M $137M ACC Pittsburgh, PA public
    43. Mississippi State University $523M $116M SEC Starkville, MS public
    44. Baylor University $513M $137M Big 12 Waco, TX private
    45. University of Virginia $506M $141M ACC Charlottesville, VA public
    46. Oklahoma State University $500M $122M Big 12 Stillwater, OK public
    47. Georgia Tech $498M $134M ACC Atlanta, GA public
    48. Iowa State University $492M $116M Big 12 Ames, IA public
    49. Syracuse University $487M $114M ACC Syracuse, NY private
    50. Northwestern University $486M $118M Big Ten Evanston, IL private
    51. North Carolina State University $481M $121M ACC Raleigh, NC public
    52. University of Maryland $477M $121M Big Ten College Park, MD public
    53. Virginia Tech $474M $130M ACC Blacksburg, VA public
    54. University of California, Los Angeles $472M $105M Big Ten Los Angeles, CA public
    55. University of Colorado $470M $127M Big 12 Boulder, CO public
    56. University of Utah $468M $126M Big 12 Salt Lake City, UT public
    57. Kansas State University $444M $102M Big 12 Manhattan, KS public
    58. Boston College $443M $118M ACC Chestnut Hill, MA private
    59. Rutgers University $417M $125M Big Ten New Brunswick, NJ public
    60. West Virginia University $403M $106M Big 12 Morgantown, WV public
    61. Washington State University $392M $79M Pac-12 Pullman, WA public
    62. University of California, Berkeley $386M $126M ACC Berkeley, CA public
    63. Wake Forest University $362M $97M ACC Winston-Salem, NC private
    64. Brigham Young University $357M $106M Big 12 Provo, UT private
    65. Southern Methodist University $327M $86M ACC Dallas, TX private
    66. Oregon State University $326M $92M Pac-12 Corvallis, OR public
    67. San Diego State University $287M $104M MWC San Diego, CA public
    68. Arizona State University $279M $115M Big 12 Tempe, AZ public
    69. University of Cincinnati $216M $87M Big 12 Cincinnati, OH public
    70. University of Central Florida $181M $85M Big 12 Orlando, FL public
    71. University of Connecticut $178M $93M Big East Storrs, CT public
    72. Boise State University $176M $61M MWC Boise, ID public
    73. East Carolina University $153M $63M AAC Greenville, NC public
    74. University of South Florida $150M $71M AAC Tampa, FL public
    75. University of Memphis $148M $64M AAC Memphis, TN public

    Correction: This story has been updated to correct the valuations for North Carolina State University, which is worth $481 million, and for Ohio State University, which is worth $1.32 billion. It also corrects the rankings of 16 schools on CNBC’s list and corrects that Brigham Young University is a private university. This story has also been updated to correct aggregate valuation data for the ACC conference, which is worth about $10 billion or about $558 million per school.

    Read the original article here

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