20 Most Valuable College Football Programs

In case you need yet another reason that the SEC is the greatest conference in all the land, check out this article in Forbes which ranks the 20 Most Valuable College Football Teams in the country. Their rankings are based what the football programs contribute to four important beneficiaries:

* Their university (the value of contributions from football to the institution for academic purposes, including scholarship payments for football players)
* Their athletic department (the net profit generated by the football program ultimately retained by the department)
* Their conference (the distribution of bowl game revenue)
* Their local communities with a vested interest in the team (incremental spending in the county during home-game weekends)

Not surprisingly, the SEC has 8 of the top 20 teams, including:
#3 Georgia ($90M)
#5 Florida ($85M)
#6 LSU ($76M)
#7 Tennessee ($74M)
#8 Auburn ($73M)
#9 Alabama ($72M)
#12 South Carolina ($69M)
#15 Arkansas ($53M)

Somehow, Fat Charlie the Fraud and his pathetic Irish top this list. The Big 10+1 is 2nd behind the SEC with 5, the Big 12 has 4, and the Pac-10 places 2.