Rankings reveal Gophers athletics at No. 32 with $637 million valuation

Minnesota's athletic department ranks near the middle of the Big Ten.

Nov 26, 2016; Madison, WI, USA; Minnesota Golden Gophers mascot Goldy Gopher during the game against the Wisconsin Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium. Wisconsin won 31-17. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

The University of Minnesota athletics department has an estimated value of more than $600 million, according to a list published Thursday that ranks the top 75 college sports programs in terms of valuations in the country.

The rankings, published by CNBC, slots the University of Minnesota's athletics department as the 32nd-most valuable sports department among Division I schools in the country with a valuation of $637 million, which notes 2023's revenue at $149 million.

"What the top 75 college sports programs are worth" list / Picture via: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/19/college-sports-programs-valuations.html

The Gophers are notably the 13th-ranked Big Ten school on the list. They're ahead of Purdue, Maryland, Northwestern, UCLA and Rutgers. According to the article, the Big Ten is valued at $13.2 billion, which is an average of $734 million per school, which puts Minnesota below average in the conference.

The valuations come from Jason Belzer, who is the founder of Student Athlete NIL and Athletic Director University. The revenue figures are from the Department of Education’s Equity in Athletics Data Analysis.

In the modern world of college athletics, these numbers hold more significance than ever, because the last five years have shown how much the sport can change overnight with conference realignment and the transfer portal.

Minnesota's place at 32 shows a pretty firm place as an upper-tier program. They're not elite, but nowhere near the bottom of the Power Conference schools.

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