Website Projects UCF Football Program Comes With $200-Million Price Tag
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How much would you pay for the UCF Knights football team?
Amidst college sports' flirtation with private equity, a report from The Athletic's Matt Baker "used real-life pro transactions to gauge purchase prices relative to a team’s revenue over the past three available years of data" to determine a valuation for every Power Four football team.
For example, Texas is the most valuable at $2.38 billion, followed by Georgia at $1.92 billion and Ohio State at $1.9 billion. Though Baker wrote that NFL and NBA sales guided his ratios used for SEC and Big Ten valuations, while MLB and NHL guided his ratios used for the ACC and Big 12.
With that in mind, UCF was valued at $210 million, the 59th-highest valued Power Four team and 13th-highest in the Big 12.
The Knights come in behind two SEC teams, Mississippi State at $250 million, the same price as a WNBA expansion fee, and Vanderbilt at $228 million. However, they are valued more than Stanford ($202 million) and Kansas ($197 million) despite having a lower average football revenue.
"UCF has billed itself as the future of college football," Baker wrote. "Regardless of whether you believe that lofty claim, the Knights are positioned for upward mobility thanks to one of the nation’s largest enrollments plus a growing alumni base and city (Orlando)."
Compared to the other recent Group of Five to Power Four movers, UCF is the second-most valued after BYU ($306 million). The Knights are $32 million more valuable than SMU ($178 million), almost double the value of Cincinnati ($106 million) and 2.3 times more valuable than Houston, the least-valued Power Four program at $91 million.
UCF gets its first chance to increase its valuation this season with its opener on Aug. 28 against Jacksonville State.
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Bryson Turner is a sports journalist who covers UCF Athletics. Turner has contributed to the Black and Gold Banneret, the home for UCF Athletics on SB Nation. He has called the Orlando area home since the age of 8 and received his bachelor's and master's degrees from UCF.
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