Tom Dienhart, BTN.com Senior Writer, January 9, 2013

The Wall Street Journal recently had an interesting piece on calculating the value of college football programs. The story was based on an analysis done by Ryan Brewer, an assistant professor of finance at IUPUI who uses several factors to calculate the overall value.

Here is how the Big Ten stacked up.

  1. Michigan $731.9 million
  2. Ohio State $586.6
  3. Iowa $384.4
  4. Nebraska $360.1
  5. Penn State $300.8
  6. Wisconsin $296.1
  7. Michigan State $224.8
  8. Northwestern $148.8
  9. Purdue $145.1
  10. Indiana $142.7
  11. Minnesota $139.7
  12. Illinois $117.3

What about future Big Ten members Rutgers and Maryland? Gotcha: Rutgers: $64.1. Maryland: $96.0.

A couple of things that caught my eye:

  • How can Michigan be worth that much more than Ohio State? I would have figured Ohio State would be the most valuable.
  • Iowa is ahead of Nebraska, Penn State and Wisconsin? Who knew?
About Tom Dienhart BTN.com senior writer Tom Dienhart is a veteran sports journalist who covers Big Ten football and men's basketball for BTN.com and BTN TV. Find him on Twitter and Facebook, read all of his work at btn.com/tomdienhart, and subscribe to his posts via RSS. Also, send questions to his weekly mailbag using the form below and read all of his previous answers in his reader mailbag section.

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