Alabama is No. 1 in just about every college football poll... except one.
That would be the Wall Street Journal’s annual ranking of college football programs. While you might think that the paper gives Clemson the edge instead, you have to know that they are not examining teams’ performance on the field in 2017, but rather their overall evaluation. Much like Forbes does in ranking NFL franchise values, WSJ attempted to find out how much college football programs were worth and came to the conclusion that Ohio State reigns supreme in the sport with a nearly $1.5 billion sticker price.
The Buckeyes’ value shot up nearly 60% in just a year so you can thank a College Football Playoff appearance and that huge new Big Ten television package for boosting their bottom line. The WSJ came to the conclusion by citing a study performed by Ryan Brewer, an associate professor of finance at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus.
Not far behind Ohio State and still in the billion dollar club were Big 12 rivals Texas and Oklahoma. The Longhorns were an annual mainstay atop estimates like this for years but the team’s recent malaise on the field seems to have held them back lately. While the SEC did not have a team crack the 10 figure mark (shockingly), the league did make up half of the top 10. All said, the most valuable conference in college football averaged nearly $523 million per team overall.
Here’s the overall top 10 teams and how much they’re worth per the report:
- Ohio State - $1,510,482,000
- Texas - $1,243,124,000
- Oklahoma - $1,001,967,00
- Alabama $930,001,000
- Louisiana State - $910,927,000
- Michigan - $892,951,000
- Notre Dame - $856,938,000
- Georgia - $822,310,000
- Tennessee - $745,640,00
- Auburn - $724,191,000