What is Utah Football Worth?

Interested in purchasing the University of Utah Football team? If it were possible, one publication believes it would cost you about $199 million to be the proud owner of the Utes. The Wall Street Journal has been compiling a list for the past few years of about how much each college football team is worth, if they could be purchased like a professional franchise. Professor Ryan Brewer of the Indiana University-Purdue University of Columbus is the person responsible for these calculations, and he takes into account each program's revenue and expenses, cash flow adjustments, risk assessment, and growth projections.

The amount he came up with for how much he believes the Utes would be worth, ranks them 39th in college football at $198,940,000. How does that amount compare to other Pac-12 teams? The Oregon Ducks, or for hypothetical example, Phil Knight's Oregon Ducks, come in at No. 18 with a worth of $358,700,000, but that is only good enough for second in the conference. The Washington Huskies at No. 15, with a value of ($418,560,000), leads the Pac. Third are the USC Trojans at No. 24 with $303,570,000, followed by No. 27 Arizona State ($277 Million), No. 30 Cal ($252 Million), No. 31 Stanford ($232 Million), No. 33 UCLA ($226 Million), No. 34 Oregon State ($220 Million), and No. 36 Colorado ($208 Million) who are all ahead of the Utes. The only schools behind Utah are at No. 43 Arizona ($164 Million), and No. 49 Washington State ($135 Million).

One may look at this and think that the Utes are a worth a lot for where they rank in this theoretical ranking. Glancing at teams of interest locally and associated with Utah, BYU comes in at No. 52 ($113 Million), but TCU (No. 3 in the final AP Poll) comes in right behind the cougars at No. 53 ($111 Million). Fiesta Bowl champion Boise State is at No. 66 ($79 Million), and Utah State No. 95 ($16 Million). Utah will open next season vs Michigan who is second ($999,130,000) behind top valued Ohio State ($1,127,580,000).

What does this mean? There is a lot of money rolling around in college football. Also, the gap between the haves and have-nots seems to be widening. Despite being in the lower half of the Pac-12 as far as this study is concerned, Utah is still in the upper half of college football, which is where Utes fans want to see their team.