Alabama and Oregon left the 2012-13 football season as Nos. 1 and 2, but on “the books,” neither team scraped the top five overall.
By books, I don’t mean which team was more valuable to people making bets in Las Vegas. I’m talking about the projected worth of college football’s biggest programs if they could be bought and sold like pro teams. Ryan Brewer, an assistant professor of finance at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus,@@http://www.iupuc.edu/business/ryanbrewer/@@ found the inherent value of over 100 FBS teams, which The Wall Street Journal published last Monday. @@checked@@
The algorithm took into account each teams’ revenue, expenses, cash-flow adjustments, risk assessments and growth projections.@@checked@@ Over the past decade, the University of Texas — whose value stands at $761.7 million — has reigned supreme as college football’s most valuable team, but Michigan is closing the gap at No. 2 with a worth of $731.9 million.
Florida and Notre Dame rank Nos. 3 and 4, valued at $599.7 and $597.4, respectively.@@all amounts in story checked@@ The difference between No. 2 Michigan and No. 3 Florida is the largest gap of any two teams on the list at $132.2 million.
Oregon is the highest Pac-12 team on the list, coming in at No. 19 and valued to be worth 264.6 million — making them the second most valuable team in the state behind the Trail Blazers. The Ducks 2012-13 budget is projected to be somewhere around $93 million.
The Huskies come in just behind the Ducks at No. 20 with a value of $259.9 million. Oregon State ranks 47th on the list at just $118.8 million.
This year’s BCS National Champs Alabama sit at No. 8 with a value of $476 million. Alabama’s cross-state rival, the 3-9 Auburn Tigers, surprisingly comes in ahead of Alabama at No. 6, valued at $508.1 million.

Forbes published a similar list recently that looked at the cost-per-win efficiency of the same sample of college teams. This list took each school’s reported football expenses between the 2009 and 2011 seasons to compare how much each team spent per win.@@checked@@
Topping the list of most cost-efficient teams is Kansas State at $1.4 million per win. K-State (24th in total value — $207.1 million) went 23-15 over the past three seasons, meaning their 23 wins cost approximately $32.2 million total.
They are closely followed by the Stanford Cardinal (36th in total value — $148.7 million) at $1.52 million per win and the North Carolina State Wolf Pack at $1.58 million.
Oregon sits at No. 6 on the list of most cost-efficient teams, spending about $1.7 million per win. With a combined record of 34-6 between ’09 and ’11, Oregon is the winningest team on the list, followed by the LSU Tigers at 33-7 spending $1.8 million per win.