Have you ever looked at the crimson and white of Alabama football or the orange and blue of Auburn football and seen green?

Not green with envy, necessarily, but green as in dollars? Lots and lots of dollars?

Even if the Heart of Dixie takes a deep-rooted pride in being a deeply divided state when it comes to football allegiances, one symbol can unite the masses: $$$ And when it comes to college football in Alabama, it's a lot of $$$.

One state economist estimated the economic impact of football at Auburn University and the University of Alabama as high as $500 million annually.

Alabama may rank among the least prosperous states nationally. But when it comes to Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium or Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium, the state has its own little Wall Street.

"Everything surrounding football, there's no telling how much of an economic impact it has, but I know it is substantial," said Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard.

Perhaps more than anyone else in the state, Hubbard has a keen sense of the value of college football. In 1994, he founded Auburn Network Inc. to handle the athletic department's multimedia rights and now serves as network president.

The Business of Football

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Hubbard also has an insightful view to the state's economy as speaker of the House of Representatives - representing the Auburn area since 1998 and now one of the most powerful figures in state politics.

"It's huge," said Hubbard, R-Auburn. "It's a boon to the university. They can tell you when the football team is winning, they have more applications (from students). It's an identification.

"Then, you can look at all the merchandising that takes place all around the state. The money that is generated by athletic departments and then spent out in the communities is substantial." How huge is huge? Studies have found that football at both Alabama and Auburn impact the state's economy to the tune of about $170 million apiece annually.

But Keivan Deravi, an economics professor at Auburn University at Montgomery, projects the value for college football at the two schools may be even higher. Deravi pointed to the seemingly endless construction projects at the campuses in Auburn and Tuscaloosa - projects typically handled by in-state companies.

For instance, Alabama has spent about $115 million during the past five years in expanding Bryant-Denny Stadium twice - raising capacity to more than 100,000.

And Auburn, while sprucing up Jordan-Hare Stadium without a major expansion, also built a $90 million basketball arena.

Deravi also pointed out that the $170 million economic impact of the football programs stemmed from a study done in 2008. Since then the schools have won the past three national football championships.

"Now it's a whole lot bigger than when we looked at it," Deravi said.

The impact is seemingly infinite. For instance, Alabama's enrollment has jumped 33 percent in the past five years. How much of that can be attributed to the heightened enthusiasm for Crimson Tide football that accompanied the hiring of Nick Saban?

But if the state is rolling in money from college football, shouldn't the state overall be faring better economically? Not necessarily, according to state Sen. Arthur Orr.

Like Hubbard, Orr, RDecatur, has a unique perspective on the state budget as chair of the Senate's Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee.

"It's obviously much more important to the local areas of Tuscaloosa and Auburn and less so to Birmingham or Florence or Troy," Orr said.

"It's a huge local economic driver for those communities that have (major college) football teams and lesser so with teams in (lesser profile) leagues.

"For the state, there is an impact - particularly from those coming out of state and traveling here for their teams' games. The lodging taxes help the tourism budget and, of course, buying gasoline and food helps sales tax help education." The economics of college football matters in the state, Orr said, but the large-scale gains are more regional.

"There is a healthy benefit, but the primary benefit is in the employment and jobs that it brings to the Tuscaloosa and Auburn communities," Orr said.

Although studies have found that only about two dozen college athletic programs nationwide are profitable, Alabama is fortunate to have two of those program within its borders. It allows the high-profile programs - de facto recruiting magnets - to be self-sustaining and not siphoning away precious education dollars from academic programs.

"They have to offer athletic programs, even at deficits, because they have to provide quality of life and entertainment for kids in school," Deravi said.

"If these guys were not as successful, they would have to come up with money from somewhere else." No matter how you read the economic numbers and no matter whether you lean toward War Eagle or Roll Tide, there's always that common ground of happiness for the state that's green.

After all, if college football went away, your pocketbook would know it.

"There's no doubt about that," Hubbard said.

Times staff writer Lee Roop contributed to this report.