Ohio State Football Worth $1.5 Billion: The Most Valuable College Football Program

The Ohio State Buckeyes football program is worth $1.5 billion according to The Wall Street Journal. tOSU is the most valuable “franchise” in a world where college football teams can be bought and sold. Okay, maybe that’s not the best way to say it. The WSJ cites a study that analyzed what “each team would be worth on the open market if sold like a professional sports franchise.”

Based on this study, tOSU football is still worth less than the Buffalo Bills – the least valuable NFL franchise! It’s also weird that these teams aren’t worth more just based on the fact that the player salaries are so reasonable for management.

The Texas Longhorns ($1.24 billion) and Oklahoma Sooners ($1 billion) were second and third in the study. Oklahoma has finished in the top 10 in three of the last four seasons, but Texas has just one top 25 finish since 2009. Imagine what some actual success could do to that theoretical value!

The top 7 is full of the Internet’s favorite college football franchises:

4. Alabama Crimson Tide – $930 million
5. LSU Tigers – $910 million
6. Michigan Wolverines – $892 million
7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish – $856 million

Boy, some of these amateur athletic programs sure do make a lot of money.