In a world where money matters in collegiate sports, the top-valued teams in college basketball will continue to create a divide between those with more money to spend and those without. However, in an unpredictable study, North Carolina came away as the highest-valued college basketball team in the nation at $378 million.
College basketball’s most valuable teams (WSJ)
1 UNC $378M
2 Duke $370M
3 Indiana $279M
4 Ohio St $262M
5 Louisville $260M
6 Zona $257M
7 Cuse $256M
8 Illinois $232M
9 UK $223M
10 Arkansas $217M
11 Kansas $191M
12 Michigan $189M
13 Mich St $183M
14 UConn $165M
15 Minn $164M
Ironically, the Tar Heels come in $8 million over their archrival, the Duke Blue Devils. The gap between North Carolina and Duke with the No. 3 and beyond ranked teams is almost too much to seem realistic. Indiana is the third-highest valued team in college basketball at $279 million, nearly $100 million less than the top-ranked Tar Heels.
Now, this is not an indication of how much the team has to spend in the transfer portal to bringing in new players.
According to Brad Crawford at 247Sports, quoting the Wall Street Journal:
“Brewer’s data predicts what these college basketball teams would be worth if they were sold like a pro franchise, taking into account ‘revenues and cash flows while making financial projections about the team’s sustainability.’ These are simply figures, per Brewer, and actual value could be considerably higher on the open market.”
On top of being the highest-valued team, North Carolina is looking at building a new home for the basketball team to replace the current and outdated Dean E. Smith Center. However, no matter the amenities, the product is what determines the value in a large sense.
North Carolina has had three NCAA Championships in men’s college basketball since 2000, only three other teams can make that same statement — Florida, Duke, and UConn. After almost missing the NCAA Tournament in two of the last four years, the philosophies with the new college basketball processes are going to need to change in Chapel Hill to keep North Carolina at that status and winning.
