On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal released an interesting article that took a look at which programs in college basketball are the most valuable. based on a study from Dr. Ryan Brewer of Indiana University - Columbus.
According to that report Journal, Brewer's objective was to determine what college basketball programs would be worth if they could be bought and purchased similarly to professional sports teams.
To determine the value of each program, Brewer studied "revenues and cash flows while making financial projections about the team’s sustainability."
Leading the list of the country's most valuable college basketball programs are the names you would expect, as North Carolina is ranked No. 1 overall, with an enterprise value of $378 million and Duke is just behind them at $370 million. These are the only two programs in the country valued above $300 million each.
Other schools within the top 10 include Indiana, Ohio State, Louisville, Arizona, Syracuse, Illinois, Kentucky and Arkansas.
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Coming in at No. 63 overall, Rutgers university, with an enterprise value of $78 million. The Scarlet Knights rank 13th in the Big Ten Conference behind the following schools.
- No. 3 Indiana ($279m)
- No. 4 Ohio State ($262m)
- No. 8 Illinois ($232m)
- No. 12 Michigan ($189m)
- No. 13 Michigan State ($183m)
- No. 15 Minnesota ($164m)
- No. 20 Purdue ($146m)
- No. 26 Wisconsin ($136m)
- No. 35 Maryland ($106m)
- No. 44 Northwestern ($93m)
- No. 45 Iowa ($93m)
- No. 47 Nebraska ($92m)
According to the data gathered by Dr. Brewer, he does not have a cash flow amount for the Scarlet Knights, but does have them generating $14.6 million in revenue, which ranks them 61st overall in the country.
Now, what does this all mean? Right now, it's hard to say. First of all, these are mostly projections and not concrete valuations of each program.
“We really don’t know how this is going to work yet,” Brewer told the Wall Street Journal. “It’s all so dynamic right now.”
The Scarlet Knights valuation is rather notable as well, considering the program's overall lack of sustained success over the last 25 or so years, with just two NCAA Tournament appearances over that time span and just eight times total in program history. Additionally, as the NIL landscape continues to evolve, it will be intriguing to see if there is any correlation between some of the bigger NIL spenders in college basketball and their projected evaluation from Brewer.
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