The Kansas football program is one of the least valuable in the Big 12, according to a theoretical exercise published by The Athletic (subscription required).
Looking at all Power 4 conferences as hypothetical professional franchises, The Athletic used factors such as revenue, championships, facilities, and many other metrics to establish a valuation. They acknowledge that the methodology might be imperfect because some areas at the college level aren’t as transparent as those of professional teams.
The experiment included only the football programs and didn’t factor in the possible valuation of the schools as a whole, taking into account all sports.
Where did the Kansas football program rank in valuation?
The Kansas football program ranked as the 14th most valuable in the Big 12 and 61st overall.
KU’s valuation was estimated to be approximately $197 million in this fictional world, based on revenues of $39.3 million. The renovations to the David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium and new facilities evidently didn’t help matters much.
One thing that probably hurt Kansas was the size of the stadium and its history as a program. With the renovations to the stadium, there will be less seating than before, and it never had a high seating capacity to begin with. Now, it‘s going to seat somewhere in the low 40,000s.
In its 125-year history, the program has never been a consistent winner. And have only occasionally been a national contender. Early in the 20th century, the Jayhawks compiled a 53-9-4 record over seven seasons. In 1968, they were in contention for a national title, but they lost in the Orange Bowl due to having too many men on the field, which prevented an otherwise game-winning touchdown.
KU made a brief splash nationally when they went 12-1 in 2007 and won the Orange Bowl. Then the program slid into oblivion, only recently pulling itself from the depths of ineptitude.
While it is easy to be dismayed by the poor perception of the Kansas football program, it has improved significantly since four years ago. The Jayhawks are at least competitive, and expectations are much higher than they were.
If head coach Lance Leipold can continue to improve the level of talent on the roster and coach his players effectively, as he has, then perhaps the Jayhawks will start filling their stadium regularly, thereby improving revenue and reputation.
Of course, if a similar excercise was completed for basketball, KU would be one of the very top programs in value. If the two programs were combined, Kansas would rank much higher.
The low valuation is well-deserved, even in this hypothetical exercise, but the future looks bright for KU. With success will come, and the perception of this program will improve significantly over the next several years.