Top 20 Most Profitable Football Teams

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Is there a reason you are using old data?

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You realize that you make more money making those extra trips, not the other way around?

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With $97 million in revenue the team is second only to Texas. But the Crimson Tide also spent $51 million of that on football operations. That’s $11 million more than any other team spent last year.

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I bet that sounded better in your simple mind before you typed it out.

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College football teams obviously can’t be bought or sold, so there’s no use in considering what they might go for on the open market like we do with our NFL valuations. But they are of serious value to their universities, athletic departments, conferences and even local economies, which get a sizable boost from fans traveling to home football games.

We combine money generated in those four areas — university value, for example, consists of academic support in the form of football scholarships and direct university contributions — in the 2014-15 season to get a snapshot of just how valuable each team is. Revenue and expense data comes from annual financial reports made to the Department of Education; value to the local economy is measured by economic impact studies.

That approach explains how some SEC teams actually fell in value this year despite surging team revenues. The conference, which finally became the most valuable in college sports earlier this year, collected $112 million from bowl games and the College Football Playoff plus another $350 million from TV deals, including some $112 million in SEC Network profits. The average SEC football team generated $63.5 million in revenue last year, up more than $6 million from the previous season.

But because our valuation methodology looks at football income used for academics and other athletic programs, we’re truly interested in team earnings. And there isn’t much money left when teams spend it all on themselves. The average SEC team spent $29 million last year. To put that into context, consider that the Big Ten, second on the football spending list, averaged expenses of $24.5 million per team last year; all but four SEC teams were above that threshold.

And when it comes to spending what you make, there’s no better example than Alabama (No. 8, $99 million). With $97 million in revenue the team is second only to Texas. But the Crimson Tide also spent $51 million of that on football operations. That’s $11 million more than any other team spent last year — Auburn, second on the spending list, dumped $40 million into football last season — and thus ranks the Tide 10th in profitability.

What’s the money getting spent on? It’s not all laser tag and mini golf, but facilities have become a massive line item for collegiate athletic departments. Those aren’t purely football costs (and oftentimes a lot of the money comes from outside of athletics, as with Nike NKE -1.49% billionaire Phil Knight’s funding of Oregon’s new $138 million Hatfield-Dowlin Complex) but operating those state-of-the-art facilities isn’t cheap. And that doesn’t even touch on stadium expansions or renovations, which have become a full-on arms race.

Another huge piece of the spending pie goes to the coaching staff. For Alabama that means $7 million for head coach Nick Saban, plus around $5 million more for his staff. That $12 million in coaching expenses leads the nation, but it isn’t so far out of the ordinary; nine teams spend more than $9 million per year in base coach salaries. Gameday operating expenses aren’t quite so sizable, but most top teams are typically in the $4 million to $8 million range. Recruiting adds another $500,000 to $2 million to the tally each year.

And the players? Well, they get scholarships covered, which isn’t a small expense. We estimate that even at the least expensive schools athletic departments typically spend upwards of $2 million per year on football player scholarships. And for schools like Notre Dame and USC, which cost some $50,000 per year in tuition (and don’t provide in-state discounts like public schools), those scholarship expenses easily top $5 million.

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That post makes me embarrassed for you and I don't even know you.

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