College Football’s Most Valuable Teams – Forbes.

Forbes Magazine has released it’s list of the top 20 college football teams according to financial value.

The 20 Most Valuable College Football Teams  (number in parentheses is the BCS ranking before bowl games):

1. Texas Longhorns – $129 million (24)
2. Notre Dame Fighting Irish – $112 million
3. Penn State Nittany Lions – $100 million (22)
4. LSU Tigers – $96 million (1)
5. Michigan Wolverines – $94 million (13)
6. Alabama Crimson Tide – $93 million (2)
7. Georgia Bulldogs – $90 million (16)
8. Arkansas Razorbacks – $89 million (6)
9. Auburn Tigers – $88 million (25)
10. Oklahoma Sooners – $87 million (14)
11. Florida Gators – $86 million
12. Tennessee Volunteers – $82 million
13. Ohio State Buckeyes – $78 million
14. Nebraska Cornhuskers – $77 million (20)
15. Wisconsin Badgers – $67 million (10)
16. South Carolina Gamecocks – $64 million (9)
17. Texas A&M Aggies – $63 million
18. USC Trojans – $62 million (5)
19. Michigan State Spartans – $59 million (17)
20. Iowa Hawkeyes – $48 million

Observations

1.  Worst dollar to ranking ratio – Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Notre Dame is 2nd on the list of financial value, but are unranked with an 8-4 record.

2.  Worst dollar to win ratio – Tennessee Volunteers

The Vols use $16.4M of value to produce 1 win.  They had 5 wins on the season.

3.  Best dollar to ranking and win ratio – Oklahoma State Cowboys

OSU is not even on the value list, but sit at #3 in the rankings with 11 wins.

4.  Surprise omissions – Oklahoma State Cowboys and Oregon Ducks

With all of the money that T. Boone Pickens has invested in Oklahoma State and Phil Knight/Nike has invested in Oregon, I would have thought those two schools would be on this list.

5.  With all of the troubles in Happy Valley, I would not be surprised to see a devaluation of the Penn State Nittany Lions.