First & Goal: NCAA Football Teams That Earned the Most Money in 2017

Did your alma mater have what it takes to earn the top rank in revenue?

By Joseph Jungermann | Dec. 13, 2019

Just because football season is coming to a close, that doesn't mean the celebrating has to end.

If your team didn't earn a spot in the College Football Playoff or rank in the Associated Press Top 25 to end the season, there's still a chance they made the top rankings in gross earnings for 2017.

Or at least they are part of one of the states that did.

According to Equity in Athletics Data Analysis, there are over 800 college football teams across the United States that are bringing in revenue each year.

For the purpose of this study, we examined the earnings of teams who register under Title IV of the the Higher Education Act of 1965. That means that the schools on this list are covered under the administration of the United States federal student financial aid programs.

Simply put, all of the 800-plus schools used for these data sets offer financial aid to their students, including government subsudized and unsbsudized loans.

The following chart groups colleges (graduate universities not included) by state to determine the total earnings that each state's football programs earned for the 2017 season.

Gross revenue comes from various sources such as ticket sales for home games, program sales, concessions, parking, contributions from alumni and alumnae and NCAA and conference distributions.

The Top 5 states measured by earnings are as follows:

1. Texas: $521,718,433

2. Alabama: $264,676,099

3. California: $260,520,029

4. Michigan: $250,862,856

5. Pennsylvania: $227,812,213

Remember, ALL figures represent gross income ONLY.

Teams reinvest revenue for recruitment of players, coaching-staff salaries and scholarships. Big-time universities who receive a lot of primetime coverage have surpluses despite their expenses, but smaller-scale teams normally are in the red financially and rely on contributions and budgeting to keep football programs going.

Speaking of big-time universities, the following chart represents the highest earning football teams in each of the 50 states. Same rules apply.

The Top 5 teams measured by earnings are as follows:

1. The University of Texas at Austin: $143,064,180

2. University of Georgia: $129,023,591

3. University of Michigan: $124,928,493

4. The University of Alabama: $111,102,134

5. Ohio State University: $110,661,057

The Texas Longhorns take the top spot by a wide margin thanks to the team's rich history. Also, the team has its own exclusive television network to help net even more income.

In 2017 alone, all of the NCAA football teams in the data sets above netted an astounding $5,426,872,000.

Here's how the NCAA stacks up against other major sports leagues in America:

The growing popularity of college sports has led to a boom in income for teams. As a result, states like California and Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will allow college athletes to hire agents and start earning money from endorsements, per Alan Blinder of the New York Times.

The bill is set to take effect in 2023 and is guaranteed to influence the rest of college athletics across America.

Until then, college football will continue pushing toward the revenue goal-line putting up bigger numbers in the finance column than it ever could put up on the scoreboard.