Check out WSJ article below and rankings below.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
How Much Is Your College-Basketball Team Worth?
Kentucky remains the most valuable program in the sport, while the Atlantic Coast Conference has four teams in the top seven
By Andrew Beaton
April 8, 2019 12:04 p.m. ET
One team will be crowned college basketball’s champion on Monday night after a nutty season that included rug heists, controversial calls and one famously broken shoe. But before the confetti falls and “One Shining Moment” plays, there’s another question to answer: Which program is the most valuable in the country?
Hint: Virginia and Texas Tech aren’t close.
Kentucky leads the country with a valuation of $334.2 million, according to an annual study by Ryan Brewer, an associate professor of finance at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus. This is Kentucky’s third straight year atop the rankings, while its value shot up 35.5% over a year ago. John Calipari’s reward for leading the country’s most valuable program: a recent lifetime contract extension.
The annual study assesses what every college team would be worth if it could be bought and sold on the open market like a professional franchise. Brewer’s analysis takes into account each program’s revenues and expenses with cash-flow adjustments, risk assessments and growth projections.
Overall, values across the sport were up 9.3%—a major bounce back after they were down 7.4% a year ago when various issues such as the federal probe that exposed alleged corruption, bribery and kickbacks in the sport threatened its popularity.
While those issues haven’t dissipated, Brewer found that the fundamentals of the sport proved to be extremely strong over the past year, leading to the growth in values. Those key positive factors included encouraging television ratings that indicated fans are still flocking to the sport in spite of any underlying questions that may still exist. “The sport itself is really in good shape,” Brewer said. “There’s a ton of demand.”
Important elements during this season, Brewer noted were the competitive games during the NCAA tournament and, yes, Duke star Zion Williamson. Although Williamson may be in college for just this one season, he brought rejuvenated attention to the sport in a way that can be long lasting, Brewer added.
Wiliamson’s Blue Devils ranked fourth in Brewer’s rankings with a $201.5 million valuation and as one of four ACC teams in the top seven, including Louisville ($238.4 million), Syracuse ($163 million) and North Carolina ($145.4 million). Overall, Kansas ($319.5 million) came in with the second-highest value. And Indiana ranked fifth at $196.2 million, but its value fell by 19.3% with Brewer saying the school’s on-court struggles—it has missed the NCAA tournament for three straight years—are now catching up to one of the country’s most historically successful programs.
The two teams in this year’s title game, No. 1 seed Virginia ($64 million) and No. 3 seed Texas Tech ($40.3 million) ranked 36th and 62nd, respectively. But those low rankings probably don’t matter much to either of them: Both the Cavaliers and Red Raiders are playing for their first ever championship on Monday night.
RANK SCHOOL VALUATION 1-YR VALUE CHANGE
1 University of Kentucky $334,220,000 35.50%
2 University of Kansas $319,470,000 67.10%
3 University of Louisville $238,400,000 2.00%
4 Duke University $201,500,000 18.70%
5 Indiana University $196,200,000 -19.30%
6 Syracuse University $162,980,000 9.00%
7 University of North Carolina $145,350,000 22.30%
8 University of California-Los Angeles $138,390,000 43.10%
9 University of Arizona $137,380,000 2.60%
10 University of Wisconsin $131,800,000 -18.00%
11 University of Illinois $125,860,000 24.90%
12 Purdue University $124,670,000 20.70%
13 Ohio State University $117,330,000 -18.10%
14 Northwestern University $115,670,000 15.60%
15 University of Arkansas $113,560,000 15.60%
16 University of Minnesota $106,850,000 16.90%
17 University of Michigan $102,570,000 7.50%
18 University of Dayton $100,010,000 18.40%
19 University of Maryland $99,640,000 -24.40%
20 Michigan State University $97,290,000 42.50%
21 University of Nebraska $88,720,000 90.90%
22 University of Texas $86,240,000 11.90%
23 Florida State University $79,810,000 73.70%
24 University of Alabama $79,570,000 6.50%
25 University of Tennessee $74,550,000 0.50%
26 Marquette University $72,400,000 4.50%
27 Stanford University $71,880,000 72.50%
28 Villanova University $71,080,000 64.90%
29 University of Missouri-Columbia $70,490,000 54.50%
30 Clemson University $69,580,000 19.80
31 Iowa State University $68,550,000 9.10%
32 Arizona State University $67,550,000 41.40%
33 Oklahoma State University $66,650,000 -2.30%
34 North Carolina State University $66,400,000 15.60%
35 Gonzaga University $66,120,000 37.80%
36 University of Virginia $64,040,000 28.60%
37 Kansas State University $61,970,000 10.30%
38
Xavier University $61,870,000 3.30%
39 University of Washington $61,820,000 -3.70%
40 University of Florida $61,100,000 -27.80%
41 University of Iowa $59,670,000 -6.50%
42 University of California-Berkeley $59,600,000 22.00%
43 University of South Carolina $59,480,000 -6.70%
44 Brigham Young University $59,300,000 62.20%
45 University of Oklahoma $58,260,000 0.10%
46 Texas Christian University $56,390,000 42.00%
47 Virginia Tech $52,040,000 37.50%
48 University of Colorado $50,980,000 11.90%
49 Virginia Commonwealth University $50,520,000 -4.50%
50 Georgetown University $50,270,000 -13.90%