What the Kentucky Athletic Department is Worth in Millions of Dollars

College athletics is a business. That’s always been the case, but the emergence of NIL has really poked holes in the non-profit fallacy. How much is the business worth? What about at Kentucky? We have a rough estimate and it is an astronomical number.

CNBC sought out to answer the question, “How much is an athletic department worth?” They teamed up with Jason Belzer of AthleticDirectorU to tackle that question. Belzer’s company has advised programs on NIL and private equity investments, helping them compile an expansive database of financial information. They used revenue figures from 2023, estimated NIL spending, and alumni involvement to reach the final valuations for each program.

Ohio State comes in at No. 1 as one of only four athletic departments worth north of $1 billion. The Kentucky athletic department is valued at $775 million, which ranks No. 19 nationally and ninth in the SEC. Mitch Barnhart’s athletic department generated approximately $174 million in revenue last year.

That money has been put to good use. The Kentucky baseball team went to the College World Series for the first time this summer. The volleyball team won an eighth straight SEC title before falling in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. A couple of disappointing basketball programs have corrected course under new coaches, with each team ranked in the Top 20 after suffering only one loss to start the season. The one big outlier is the football program, who just had its worst season since Mark Stoops’ first.

Rankings of SEC Athletics Departments

School	Valuation	Revenue	National Rank
Texas	$1.281 Billion	$271 Million	2
Texas A&M	$1.264 Billion	$279 Million	3
Alabama	$978 Million	$200 Million	5
Georgia	$950 Million	$210 Million	7
Tennessee	$940 Million	$202 Million	9
Oklahoma	$928 Million	$199 Million	10
LSU	$916 Million	$200 Million	13
Florida	$865 Million	$189 Million	14
Arkansas	$776 Million	$167 Million	18
Kentucky	$775 Million	$174 Million	19
Auburn	$772 Million	$195 Million	20
Ole Miss	$651 Million	$142 Million	29
South Carolina	$650 Million	$160 Million	30
Missouri	$590 Million	$142 Million	35
Vanderbilt	$551 Million	$125 Million	38
Mississippi State	$523 Million	$116 Million	43

[CNBC: The Most Valuable College Athletic Departments]

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