Univ. Of North Carolina Hoops Team Again Ranked Most Valuable

The Univ. of North Carolina men's basketball team tops Forbes’ third annual ranking of college basketball programs with a value of $29M, “up 12% from last year when they also claimed the No. 1 spot,” according to Peter Schwartz of FORBES. UNC’s $17.7M profit last season “was greater than any other team and 70% higher, on average, than the rest of the top 20.” The “notoriety of the Tar Heels basketball team” is the “driving force behind the athletic department’s apparel deal with Nike and its licensing program, which together added $5.8[M] to university coffers last year to support academic programs.” Collegiate Licensing Co. data indicated that UNC ranked sixth in the nation in merchandise sales last year and was the “only institution in the top 10 that is not a football powerhouse.” Meanwhile, Duke for the second straight year “dropped three spots” in the rankings. The school’s $16.4M team value is “hamstrung by a bloated operating budget of $13.5[M], 50% greater than any other basketball team and twice the average of the 20 most valuable teams.” Minnesota and Tennessee are new to the rankings this year, while N.C. State and Wake Forest dropped off the list (FORBES.com, 3/16). Notably, six of the 20 schools listed did not make this year's men's basketball tournament (THE DAILY).

METHODOLOGY: Forbes’ Schwartz noted college teams “have value in terms of what kind of dividends they pay to their stakeholders.” Dividend money is “what's left for the team's university (for academic purposes, including scholarship payments for players) and athletic department (to support non-revenue sports) after the cost of running the basketball operation in question.” It also includes “what's generated for its conference (the distribution of tournament revenue) and the community around the university (estimated incremental spending by visitors to the county that's attributable to the program).” The first two factors “were given the most weight” in the rankings.