Top 20 Most Profitable College Football Programs
The 20 most profitable college football programs made an eye-popping $925 million combined after expenses. The SEC is the leading conference on the field and on the balance sheet, as it has nine schools in the top 20. Of the remaining 11 most profitable programs, there are four from the Big Ten, three from Pac-12, two from the Big-12 and one from the ACC. Here’s the complete list:
- Texas – $92 million
- Tennessee – $70 million
- LSU – $58 million
- Michigan – $56 million
- Notre Dame – $54 million
- Georgia – $50 million
- Ohio State – $50 million
- Oklahoma – $48 million
- Auburn – $47 million
- Alabama – $46 million
- Oregon – $40 million
- Florida State – $39 million
- Arkansas – $38 million
- Washington – $38 million
- Florida – $37 million
- Texas A&M – $37 million
- Penn State – $36 million
- Michigan State – $32 million
- USC – $29 million
- South Carolina – $28 million
Wins don’t affect the bottom line
Texas is by far the most profitable football program despite only winning five games last season. On the flip side, Clemson won 14 games and competed in the National Championship yet it’s not one of the 20 most profitable football programs.
Texas makes the most money after expenses because of television revenue. The University of Texas owns the Longhorn Network which broadcasts its games. The most profitable conferences, the SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12, each run their own lucrative television network as well. Television revenue also boosts the profits of Notre Dame’s football team, as the Fighting Irish have an exclusive deal with NBC to broadcast its games.
Other uber-profitable schools, like Tennessee and Michigan, supplement television revenue the old-fashion way, generating money from ticket sales in their gigantic stadiums. The Wolverines home field, Michigan Stadium, is the largest in the country, seating over 107,000 people while Volunteers’ stomping ground, Neyland Stadium, holds just over 102,000 fans.
If these ultra-lucrative football programs are so profitable, should student-athletes be paid?
The elephant in the room is that all of these schools are making lots of money from the hard work of unpaid student-athletes. In light of these immense profits, fans and the media have begun to put pressure on the NCAA to start compensating football and men’s basketball players. Despite growing public sentiment to pay student-athletes, the reality is that even athletic departments with the most profitable football programs struggle to break even.
This happens because football and, to a lesser extent, men’s basketball subsidize all of the other sports which do not generate any revenue. So, in order pay student-athletes, schools would have to cut other non-revenue sports.
Pac-12 breakout star. Carlos Strickland.
Berkeley College Sports Recruiting
Berkeley College New York Sports Recruiting
Berry College Sports Recruiting
Bethany College Sports Recruiting
Find opportunities for athletic scholarships and get connected to college coaches.