Kentucky owns the most valuable college basketball team in the country
The top college basketball programs are worth a lot to their athletic departments and universities, but what would they fetch if they were placed for sale on the open market?
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That’s the question Ryan Brewer, an assistant professor of finance at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus, has strived to answer for a few years now. Before each Final Four, he releases a list of assessed worths and the 2017 edition was published by the Wall Street Journal on Friday.
This year’s king?: None other than Kentucky, which Brewer believes is worth a whopping $342.6 million. Brewer bases his estimates on a formula that considers each program’s revenues and expenses as well as cash-flow, risk and potential growth.
Kentucky was ousted in the Elite Eight by North Carolina last weekend and was recently named college basketball’s top program based on their consistency atop the AP polls. Now they can add this title to their resume after a $98.3 million jump in worth. That boost allowed the Wildcats to displace instate-rival Louisville, which had been the top team each year since Brewer started the study in 2011.
Louisville is second on the list with an estimated worth of $320 million, followed by Indiana ($277 million), Duke ($190 million) and Kansas ($181 million).
Flush with television contract cash, the Big Ten and ACC dominate the top 20 with a combined eight teams. Wisconsin ($178 million), Ohio State ($177 million), Maryland ($154 million), Syracuse ($153 million) and North Carolina ($143 million) round out the top 10.
As for the three other Final Four teams, the right rich person could get them for a relative song. South Carolina ranks 34th at $60.6 million, Gonzaga is 39th at $57.9 million and Oregon is 69th at $33 million.
(The last team on the list? Georgia Southern, which comes in 176th at $2.85 million — less than half of what John Calipari and Rick Pitino each pull down from their schools in the Bluegrass State.)
None of this takes into account, however, the sentimental value that could drive some of these prices upward if multiple big boosters started vying for their alma mater’s teams. For example, Nike’s Phil Knight seemingly has $33 million fall out of his pocket any time he steps foot on Oregon’s campus.
In the end, though, this is just a fun exercise because these teams are no for sale.
At the same time, it’s a reminder that college hoops teams remain a big business for their schools.
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