Utah Utes ranked as most valuable college football program in Big 12

Utes would hypothetically sell for a half-billion dollars if they were up for sale, according to The Athletic

Utah Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham looks on before the game against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds at Rice-Eccles Stadium. | Rob Gray-Imagn Images

Though college football programs don't go up for auction like professional sport franchises do — or at least, they haven't yet — The Athletic found that no Big 12 constituent would be more valuable in such a world than the Utah Utes.

As some schools like Florida State and Boise State explore private equity options, The Athletic recently took a swing at projecting hypothetical selling prices for all 68 power conference teams in the country.

While using the transactions of pro sport teams to create a price that's relative to the program's yearly revenue income, The Athletic's methodology has estimated that Utah would sell for about $539 million. That puts the Utes as the No. 29-most valuable team in the nation and the most valuable brand in the 16-team Big 12 conference, with TCU not far behind at $523 million.

The Athletic also found that Utah's average football revenue over the past three years ($77 million) was more than any of its conference mates.

Texas topped the rankings with a projected sell price of $2.38 billion. Georgia ($1.92 billion), Ohio State ($1.9 billion), Notre Dame ($1.85 billion) and Michigan ($1.83 billion) rounded out the top five, as the SEC and Big Ten occupied 16 of the top 17 spots on The Athletic's valuations.

In fact, 12 SEC schools and 11 from the Big Ten were tabbed with a higher selling price than the Big 12's top revenue earner.

Utah's half-billion dollar projected sale price certainly takes into account the program's success under head coach Kyle Whittingham, who guided the program to a conference or division title in each of its last four seasons as a member of the Pac-12, on top of having a winning season in 17 of his first 20 seasons at the helm.

Whittingham, who's tied with Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy for longest tenured coach at one school, has accumulated a career record of 167-86 (66% win percentage), including 11-6 (64.7%) in bowl games during his time as head coach.

Big 12 program valuation projection

1. Utah ($539M)
2. TCU ($523M)
3. Texas Tech ($440M)
4. Oklahoma State ($373M)
5. Arizona State ($372M)
6. Iowa State ($331M)
7. Colorado ($328M)
8. Kansas State ($321M)
9. BYU ($306M)
10. West Virginia ($284M)
11. Arizona ($282M)
12. Baylor ($276M)
13. UCF ($210M)
14. Kansas ($197M)
15. Cincinnati ($106M)
16. Houston ($91M)