College football has always been big business, even more so in the modern era with mega TV deals, and what will be a comprehensive new plan to share revenue with players.

Not that any university would actually “sell” its football program, we think, but just for the sake of argument, how much would schools be able to get if they did?

For that, the Wall Street Journal has revealed the numbers in an effort to estimate how much the top 100 college football programs in terms of enterprise value.

Six of the top 10 programs are worth more than $1 billion in value, according to research done by Ryan Brewer, an associate professor of finance at Indiana University Columbus.

That research took several factors into consideration, including revenues, cash flow, sustainability, and other aspects of what drives value in the world of college football.

As expected, it was a lot of SEC and Big Ten at the top of these rankings, as with most, and in Brewer’s estimation, college football’s most valuable brand is also its national champion.

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10. Oklahoma

Value: $881 million

Brent Venables is just 22-17 in his three seasons with the Sooners, is 0-3 in bowl games, and went over .500 once, but this is still one of the 10 most valuable programs in college football, but the race is on for Venables to keep OU a contender as it embarks on life in the much-tougher SEC.

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9. Texas A&M

Value: $1.001 billion

While the Aggies may not be in the Longhorns’ class in terms of overall accomplishment, or in apparent market value, they’re still in a state where football is a religion and where plenty of cash-rich donors are willing to give what they can to an A&M program on solid footing under the leadership of head coach Mike Elko.

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8. Tennessee

Value: $1.017 billion

Josh Heupel has won double-digit games in two of his seasons as head coach, and the Vols got a little bump in valuation after making their first College Football Playoff. But they’ll need to play better going forward than they did this time out after a 25-point loss in the first round.

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7. Penn State

Value: $1.027 billion

One of college football’s most valuable programs for many years, the Nittany Lions also increased their profile this past season by making their first appearance in the College Football Playoff, starting off 2-0 before a close loss against finalist Notre Dame.

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6. LSU

Value: $1.060 billion

One of college football’s consistent winners and most well-attended programs, LSU is yet to make the College Football Playoff in head coach Brian Kelly’s tenure, but he has won 29 games and went 3-0 in bowl appearances in his three years with the school.

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5. Notre Dame

Value: $1.293 billion

Head coach Marcus Freeman singlehandedly helped Notre Dame increase its value this past season, his third with the school, leading the football program to a national championship game appearance, and as an independent, it gets to keep all that CFP money, more than $20 million, for itself.

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4. Georgia

Value: $1.348 billion

Few programs in college football put as much work into acquiring talent as the Bulldogs, and their recruiting success has resulted in two consecutive national championships in recent years, dramatically increasing Georgia’s already-lucrative brand.

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3. Michigan

Value: $1.655 billion

College football’s first program to win over 1,000 games, Michigan also won its first national championship of the 21st century a year ago, helping reiterate its standing nationally. The program also just signed top-ranked 2025 recruit Bryce Underwood to a big NIL deal.

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2. Texas

Value: $1.897 billion
Having extra cash on hand has never been an issue for the Longhorns, who routinely top or nearly top rankings of this kind, given the program’s inexhaustible rotation of rich donors and reserve of passionate fans, both of which helped the program to more than a quarter-billion dollars in revenue in its first year as members of the SEC.

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1. Ohio State

Value: $1.957 billion

Ohio State has never been short on resources, and much was said of the Buckeyes’ “$20 million roster” coming into the season. It certainly paid off as they won the first-ever 12-team playoff national championship.

(WSJ)

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