NCAA Football Teams Made More Money Than Many NFL Teams in 2015 [INFOGRAPHIC]

Back to the blog

College sports is big business–that should come as no surprise to anyone. With all of the sponsorship, TV deals, and merchandise sales, many of the nation’s biggest schools earn tens of millions of dollars each year. But just how much is being earned? And how much of that is going back into the school’s coffers?

We did an analysis of the reported football income and profits from the 2014-2015 football season and found some pretty staggering facts about just how much is being earned on the business of college ball.

Some key findings:

The top 100 football programs (by earnings) generated nearly $5.6 billion in combined revenue

University of Texas (Austin) reported the highest earnings: $121 million

UT reported that of that $121 million, $91 million was profit–a 75% margin

Almost $1 million in profit was earned per player on the UT roster

UT’s $91 million in profit was higher than the 2015 operating income of 25 out of 32 NFL teams

22 NCAA teams reported profits higher than the operating income of the lowest-earning NFL team, the Atlanta Falcons

University of Texas Earnings

Raking in the most money of any NCAA team, the Texas Longhorns football team earned a staggering $121 million in revenue and $91 million in profit for the 2014-15 season.

Not only did that put them nearly $25 million ahead of the second-best NCAA team (University of Alabama, by earnings), but it also put them ahead of nearly every NFL team when comparing the profits earned by Texas versus the operating income of the professional teams. (Note: These are not perfect comparisons, but were the closest figures we could find publicly available for all teams.) Only 7 professional teams had a higher operating income than UT’s football profits.

Given UT’s 99-man football team roster, they made almost $1,000,000 in profit for every player on the team. ($924,925.58 per player, to be exact.)

NCAA vs NFL earnings

The Atlanta Falcons had the lowest operating income of all NFL teams in the 2015 season. They reported earnings of $25.4 million. All told, 22 NCAA football programs posted profits in excess of what the Falcons brought in.

Full NCAA Football Revenue Data

Rank Team Revenue (2014-15) 1 The University of Texas at Austin $121,382,436 2 The University of Alabama $97,023,963 3 The University of Tennessee-Knoxville $94,377,857 4 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor $88,251,525 5 Auburn University $86,742,256 6 University of Georgia $86,719,115 7 Louisiana State University and Agricultural – Mechanical College $86,312,831 8 University of Notre Dame $86,125,989 9 Ohio State University-Main Campus $83,547,428 10 University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus $78,737,409 11 University of Florida $74,720,732 12 Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus $71,305,219 13 Florida State University $70,321,194 14 University of Washington-Seattle Campus $66,941,640 15 University of Arkansas $66,179,978 16 Texas A – M University-College Station $62,199,166 17 University of Oregon $60,956,894 18 University of Nebraska-Lincoln $60,621,628 19 University of South Carolina-Columbia $59,768,622 20 Michigan State University $59,227,831 21 University of Mississippi $53,399,653 22 University of Iowa $52,354,781 23 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University $50,387,116 24 Arizona State University-Tempe $49,016,140 25 University of Southern California $45,886,944 26 University of Wisconsin-Madison $44,797,138 27 University of California-Los Angeles $44,727,001 28 Clemson University $43,959,747 29 Oklahoma State University-Main Campus $43,778,793 30 University of California-Berkeley $43,651,316 31 University of Utah $42,931,079 32 Syracuse University $41,877,234 33 Texas Christian University $41,259,536 34 Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus $41,124,340 35 North Carolina State University at Raleigh $39,999,142 36 Texas Tech University $39,266,665 37 University of Miami $38,985,460 38 University of Missouri-Columbia $37,892,973 39 Stanford University $37,519,312 40 University of Louisville $36,383,759 41 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill $36,050,976 42 University of Minnesota-Twin Cities $35,772,983 43 Baylor University $35,575,376 44 University of Kentucky $35,495,890 45 Kansas State University $34,725,916 46 University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus $34,089,376 47 Iowa State University $33,074,046 48 Duke University $32,407,399 49 Washington State University $32,004,916 50 Northwestern University $31,664,655 51 Mississippi State University $31,308,423 52 Oregon State University $30,916,950 53 University of Maryland-College Park $30,891,641 54 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign $30,819,615 55 University of Colorado Boulder $28,313,259 56 Indiana University-Bloomington $27,508,477 57 Vanderbilt University $27,409,392 58 Boston College $27,232,643 59 Rutgers University-New Brunswick $26,903,695 60 University of Kansas $25,986,541 61 University of Virginia-Main Campus $24,551,003 62 University of Central Florida $23,626,498 63 University of Arizona $23,115,960 64 West Virginia University $22,510,492 65 Wake Forest University $20,797,837 66 Boise State University $20,206,989 67 Brigham Young University-Provo $19,902,453 68 Purdue University-Main Campus $17,073,335 69 Southern Methodist University $16,448,366 70 University of Tulsa $15,108,680 71 Temple University $14,247,503 72 University of Cincinnati-Main Campus $13,821,277 73 California State University-Fresno $13,552,228 74 University of Memphis $13,376,999 75 Rice University $13,010,450 76 Colorado State University-Fort Collins $13,002,269 77 San Diego State University $12,459,848 78 East Carolina University $12,299,240 79 University of Houston $11,306,212 80 University of Wyoming $11,008,232 81 University of Hawaii at Manoa $10,716,179 82 University of South Florida-Main Campus $10,694,740 83 The University of Texas at El Paso $10,400,483 84 College of William and Mary $9,910,938 85 Liberty University $9,855,128 86 Florida International University $9,157,416 87 Middle Tennessee State University $9,054,880 88 Marshall University $9,038,549 89 Tulane University of Louisiana $8,980,759 90 University of Nevada-Las Vegas $8,954,365 91 The University of Montana $8,813,683 92 Old Dominion University $8,709,737 93 The University of Texas at San Antonio $8,564,222 94 University of South Alabama $8,548,788 95 University of North Texas $8,348,300 96 University of Connecticut $8,308,332 97 Northern Illinois University $8,268,043 98 University of Nevada-Reno $8,252,434 99 James Madison University $8,239,316 100 Miami University-Oxford $8,172,656

Full NCAA Football Profit Data

Rank School Profit (2014-15) 1 The University of Texas at Austin $91,567,632 2 The University of Tennessee-Knoxville $69,866,825 3 University of Georgia $60,564,780 4 Louisiana State University and Agricultural – Mechanical College $57,673,168 5 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor $56,370,978 6 University of Notre Dame $54,253,739 7 Ohio State University-Main Campus $50,958,935 8 University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus $48,420,800 9 Auburn University $46,664,904 10 The University of Alabama $45,979,671 11 University of Oregon $40,277,558 12 Florida State University $39,021,426 13 University of Washington-Seattle Campus $37,805,071 14 University of Florida $37,247,529 15 Texas A – M University-College Station $36,528,382 16 Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus $36,158,596 17 University of Arkansas $35,384,656 18 Michigan State University $31,533,464 19 University of Nebraska-Lincoln $31,442,136 20 University of South Carolina-Columbia $28,411,407 21 University of Mississippi $28,235,292 22 University of Iowa $26,872,482 23 Oklahoma State University-Main Campus $24,255,512 24 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University $23,568,241 25 University of Utah $23,377,424 26 North Carolina State University at Raleigh $22,165,934 27 Syracuse University $22,067,934 28 University of California-Berkeley $21,848,446 29 Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus $21,441,395 30 Arizona State University-Tempe $20,932,756 31 Clemson University $19,767,973 32 Texas Tech University $18,310,736 33 University of Wisconsin-Madison $18,153,345 34 University of California-Los Angeles $17,868,209 35 Kansas State University $17,758,806 36 University of Louisville $17,729,229 37 Iowa State University $17,653,463 38 Stanford University $17,606,901 39 University of Kentucky $16,462,047 40 Oregon State University $16,226,236 41 Washington State University $15,366,541 42 University of Southern California $15,311,704 43 University of Maryland-College Park $14,740,252 44 University of Missouri-Columbia $14,574,940 45 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill $14,309,341 46 Mississippi State University $14,094,902 47 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign $12,482,706 48 University of Miami $12,090,804 49 University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus $11,774,800 50 Boise State University $11,367,250 51 University of Colorado Boulder $11,274,066 52 Northwestern University $10,780,397 53 Indiana University-Bloomington $9,497,550 54 Duke University $9,491,465 55 University of Minnesota-Twin Cities $9,480,768 56 Texas Christian University $7,508,323 57 Baylor University $7,141,661 58 Rutgers University-New Brunswick $6,745,502 59 University of Virginia-Main Campus $6,467,620 60 University of Central Florida $5,575,195 61 Boston College $5,378,678 62 Wake Forest University $5,357,133 63 Brigham Young University-Provo $5,268,089 64 University of Kansas $5,192,975 65 West Virginia University $5,142,723 66 The University of Montana $3,659,628 67 Vanderbilt University $3,272,867 68 University of North Texas $3,235,791 69 University of Wyoming $2,947,183 70 University of Arizona $2,693,140 71 The University of Texas at El Paso $2,644,313 72 California State University-Fresno $2,571,881 73 Montana State University $2,064,570 74 Purdue University-Main Campus $1,475,139 75 Murray State University $1,173,804 76 University of Nevada-Reno $1,164,478 77 Marshall University $1,126,483 78 East Carolina University $943,946 79 Valdosta State University $784,898 80 Charleston Southern University $730,073 81 Southern Utah University $695,945 82 Morgan State University $558,062 83 Citadel Military College of South Carolina $534,622 84 Alabama A – M University $509,450 85 Indiana State University $474,361 86 Furman University $435,756 87 Southern University and A – M College $385,160 88 Grambling State University $381,816 89 Gardner-Webb University $358,857 90 Grand Valley State University $344,727 91 University of Nebraska at Kearney $303,225 92 Kutztown University of Pennsylvania $297,487 93 Azusa Pacific University $293,089 94 Houston Baptist University $276,577 95 Miles College $266,118 96 Ohio University-Main Campus $265,584 97 Fort Valley State University $252,659 98 Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania $251,089 99 Colorado State University-Pueblo $218,517 100 Pittsburg State University $216,506

Note: Some schools that appear on the revenue list may not appear on profits and vice-versa based on their reported revenue vs profit.

NCAA football revenue and profits data from national IPEDS database.

NFL operating income data from Forbes.

Share this article: