Valuations of the Top 75 Athletic Programs

College Athletics Valuations 2024

Introduction

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?

Ranking the Most Valuable College Athletic Programs

To answer this question, CNBC set out to rank 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 Leads the Pack

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.

SEC and Big Ten Conferences Dominate

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.

Valuations by Program

Here are the top 75 most valuable college athletic programs, in order:

Conclusion

The rankings highlight the massive financial resources that top college athletic programs have at their disposal. With private investors looking to get in on the action, it’s likely that we’ll see even more aggressive recruitment and retention strategies from schools looking to boost their programs’ value.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How did you determine the valuations for each program?
A: We used a base revenue multiple of four for all institutions, and then adjusted the multiple for variables such as conference affiliation, estimated NIL spend, school subsidies, number of alumni, and other factors that can catalyze future revenue growth and profitability.

Q: What is the significance of the SEC and Big Ten conferences dominating the top of the list?
A: The massive media rights deals for each conference have created a significant revenue stream for schools within those conferences.

Q: How do you think private investors will impact the college athletic landscape?
A: With private investors looking to get in on the action, we expect to see even more aggressive recruitment and retention strategies from schools looking to boost their programs’ value.