{"id":688172,"date":"2026-01-19T07:20:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T07:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/688172\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T07:20:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T07:20:24","slug":"analysis-the-most-valuable-college-football-program-is-the-texas-longhorns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/688172\/","title":{"rendered":"Analysis: The most valuable college football program is the Texas Longhorns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AUSTIN (KXAN) \u2014 If the Texas Longhorns were sold on the open market like a professional team, the program could fetch more than $2 billion, according to a recent study.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Ryan Brewer, an associate professor of finance at Indiana University Columbus, valued the Longhorns at $2.2 billion in his latest list of college football programs. Texas is the only program in the country to be valued at more than $2 billion, and the top two programs are both from Texas. Texas A&amp;M comes in at No. 2 with a valuation of nearly $1.59 billion.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Texas mascot Bevo is led onto the field before an NCAA college football game between Texas and Colorado State in Austin, Texas, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (AP Photo\/Eric Gay)\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/8b5a24e80ba66249e726bb7aa832b4f3.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Texas mascot Bevo is led onto the field before an NCAA college football game between Texas and Colorado State in Austin, Texas, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (AP Photo\/Eric Gay)<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><a class=\"link  yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/list-texas-longhorns-players-transfer-021155118.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:LIST: Texas Longhorns players in the transfer portal or entering the NFL Draft;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> LIST: Texas Longhorns players in the transfer portal or entering the NFL Draft <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Ohio State ($1.55 billion), Louisiana State ($1.54 billion) and Michigan ($1.46 billion) round out the top five in Brewer\u2019s analysis that takes current industry trends, revenue and cash flows, along with economic shifts to estimate what the programs could be sold for.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/sports\/football\/college-football-team-value-16fd09bb?st=UGoioQ&amp;reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Brewer told the Wall Street Journal that the value of the programs;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Brewer told the Wall Street Journal that the value of the programs<\/a> has never been higher, saying valuations were up 46% over last year due to revenue sharing by schools with players and the transfer portal that creates free player movement. It\u2019s helping create more interest in the sport, Brewer said, because it\u2019s creating a larger number of potential championship teams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><a class=\"link  yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/texas-players-withdrawing-transfer-portal-001433917.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Texas players withdrawing from transfer portal saved the secondary;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Texas players withdrawing from transfer portal saved the secondary <\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven though they\u2019re paying players and it\u2019s more expensive, it\u2019s also worth more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>He used Indiana as a prime example of how increased parity in college football contributes to higher program values. The Hoosiers\u2019 value increased by nearly 68% year-over-year as they\u2019ve gone from one of the worst programs in Division I to playing for the national championship seemingly overnight. It\u2019s causing revenues and television ratings to rise, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Fifteen programs were valued at over $1 billion, eight coming from the Southeastern Conference. Georgia came in at No. 7, Alabama at No. 9, Oklahoma at No. 11, Tennessee at No. 13 and Auburn at No. 14.<\/p>\n<p>According to Brewer\u2019s analysis, the Longhorns brought in $298 million in revenue, easily the most of any program, and $80 million more than Texas A&amp;M.<\/p>\n<p>The Dallas Cowboys <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/justinteitelbaum\/2025\/08\/28\/the-nfls-most-valuable-teams-2025\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:topped Forbes\u2019 NFL valuation list at $13 billion;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">topped Forbes\u2019 NFL valuation list at $13 billion<\/a>, followed by the Los Angeles Rams at $10.5 billion. The Cincinnati Bengals were last on the list, valued at $5.25 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kxan.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN (KXAN) \u2014 If the Texas Longhorns were sold on the open market like a professional team, the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9819,256,331,257,7,21826,58,49,48,100478,100477,51,1078,1687],"class_list":["post-688172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-austin","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-college-football","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-football","tag-indiana-university","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-program-values","tag-ryan-brewer","tag-texas","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-am"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115920557464251032","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}