TEXAS A&M
The Texas A&M Aggies recently landed the top spot in Forbes’ ranking of the most valuable college football programs, recording $148 million in revenue and $107 million in profit last year.
That’s a big step for the Aggies, as in-state rival Texas is often the team at the top of the Forbes list.
As you can see in the video below, new A&M coach Jimbo Fisher joined “Golic and Wingo” on ESPN this week and discussed the honor for his program:
“I think it means dedication,” he said. “I think it means resources. I think it means athletics is very important. But as you know from A&M, everything here is very important. It’s a top-20 institution in the country. The people and the culture and the environment are ridiculous, as far as their love for the university. But also that they invest in their kids. They invest back into the university for the kids to have personal development, academic development and athletic development.”
As long as the Aggies win under Fisher, A&M could remain at the top of this list for years to come.
I find it hard to believe that they are more valuable than brands like Bama, USC, Ohio State, etc.
Winning increases a football team’s value, but I’d guess that a large portion of a team’s value comes from the amount of donations it receives. While bama has had an unprecedented streak of success, they do not enroll (and therefore graduate and produce alumni) at nearly the rate that A&M does. USC enrolls even fewer undergraduates than bama. Ohio state is the only one of those schools with an undergraduate enrollment close to A&M’s.
There are good things & bad things about being a big university, but one of the good ones is a larger alumni base from which to draw free money. A&M is one of the larger universities in the nation, and of those large schools, they probably have one of the strongest football cultures (being in a college town & in Texas). Pretty sure that explains at least part of it.
Why is it hard to believe? A&M produces more Fortune 500 CEO’s than any college in the country. With 500,000 active alumni, that’s lots of contributions and some of those alums give HUGE donations. The rankings go by total revenue without really taking into account profit, although A&M leads in both, except in cases of a tie. For example, Michigan and Alabama are #3 and #4 both with $127 million in revenue, but Michigan has $16 million more in profit. There are several teams below Bama that report considerably more profit. So, revenue seems to be the driver. A&M outpaces it’s nearest competitor, Univ of Texas, by $15 million in that category and $20 million more in profit.
If you followed A&M’s fundraising efforts on upgrading Kyle Field and the booster contributions to fire Sumlin and hire Fisher, none of this would come as a surprise to you.
You can’t sell enough t-shirts to make up for the BMAs (Big Money Ags).
Outsiders will never understand.
SEC move was a game changer in so many ways.
I agree.
Overall this is probably very true, but as an outsider that was fortunate to finally visit College Station last fall for the Bama game, me and the person I was with definitely get it now. Very cool college town, obviously a very good school academically, insanely impressive campus and facilities. Took a look at the endowment and my bwhat hole got real tight.
LMAO!
Whoop! it is the time for Aggies! So glad we joined the SEC and have now become “the” school in Texas. Long time coming.