There’s a new leader in college sports — the University of Texas at Austin.
The school’s athletic program, which tops CNBC’s valuation rankings, is now worth $1.48 billion, 16% more than last year. In fiscal 2024, the program generated aggregate revenue of $332 million, more than any other school and 23% more than in the previous year, according to figures from the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database at Syracuse University. The biggest source of revenue for UT’s athletic program was $137 million from donors, according to the database. That’s 53% more than in 2023.
Last year’s most valuable athletic program, Ohio State University, fell to No. 2, with a value of $1.35 billion, 2% more than a year ago. The program’s revenue fell 9%, to $255 million, in fiscal 2024 due to a 20% decrease in ticket revenue, according to the Knight-Newhouse database. The drop occurred primarily because the school had two fewer home football games during the 2023-24 season than it did in 2022-23, an Ohio State spokesperson told CNBC.
CNBC’s 75 most valuable athletic programs for 2025 are worth a combined $51.22 billion, 13% more than the value of the top 75 in last year’s rankings. This year’s combined programs had aggregate revenue of $11.84 billion in fiscal 2024, 8% more than 2024′s programs posted the previous year, according to the Department of Education’s Equity in Athletics Data Analysis and the Knight-Newhouse database.
