How Much is Alabama Football Worth?

The Wall Street Journal and Indiana University Columbus associate finance professor Ryan Brewer recently conducted a study to determine the most valuable program in college football as this season has come to a close.
The goal of this was to see how much a college football program could be sold for as if it were a professional sports franchise.
"Brewer looks at top-line revenues, growth and drivers of cash flow and makes projections about the sustainability of the operation, just as he would with any other business," the article states. "It isn’t a mere one-year snapshot, either—he combed through years of data for 131 major college football programs, from the heavyweights all the way down to Louisiana-Monroe. Then, after breaking down everything from television viewership to trends in enrollment, his spreadsheet finally spits out an answer."
The Alabama Crimson Tide's football season came to a disappointing conclusion with a loss to Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl. The Crimson Tide finished the year with fewer than 10 wins for the first time since 2007.
The final AP Poll was released on Tuesday after the Ohio State Buckeyes defeated Notre Dame in the National Championship. Alabama finished the season ranked No. 17 after losing the bowl game, its lowest final ranking since 2007.
Brewer placed Alabama at No. 11 among all college football programs with an adjusted revenue of $142,369,686, an adjusted cash flow of $34,487,409 and an enterprise value of $846,000,000.
Top 25 in Enterprise Value
- Ohio State: $1.957 billion
- Texas: $1.897 billion
- Michigan: $1.655 billion
- Georgia: $1.348 billion
- Notre Dame: $1.293 billion
- LSU: $1.060 billion
- Penn State: $1.027 billion
- Tennessee: $1.017 billion
- Texas A&M: $1.001 billion
- Oklahoma: $881 million
- Alabama: $846 million
- Auburn: $843 million
- Nebraska: $838 million
- Florida: $793 million
- Wisconsin: $734 million
- Washington $662 million
- Kansas: $649 million
- Iowa: $640 million
- Arkansas: $616 million
- Oregon: $608 million
- Minnesota: $550 million
- Virginia Tech: $476 million
- Illinois: $453 million
- Southern California: $452 million
- Florida State: $446 million