In futbol teams make money via transfer fees when players under contract move on to bigger clubs. Currently, when a player at Alabama goes to the NFL, Alabama does not recover any of its costs associated with the player's recruitment, development, and maintenance. Part of the reason the NFL is so profitable is that youth development is subsidized by parents, then (often public) middle and high schools, and finally (often public) colleges and universities.

Alabama had 56 players on NFL rosters at the start of the season. https://www.al.com/sports/2019/09/alabama-leads-colleges-in-...

U of A can simply spin out Crimson Tide as a professional team. Or license the name to someone who wants to run a professional team.

I'd bet the Crimson Tide is likely even worth a bit more than some low level NFL teams.

For reference, and take all these numbers with a grain of salt (plus, I have no real idea how to value a business), the University of Alabama's athletics department revenue was $175M in 2015-16 [0]; the Buffalo Bills (per Forbes the least valuable NFL team) have a revenue of $386M [1], so more than double Bama.

[0] https://www.al.com/alabamafootball/2018/01/alabama_athletics... [1] https://www.forbes.com/nfl-valuations/list/#tab:overall

According to a recent Forbes article, the least valuable NFL team is worth over $2B.

> The Crimson Tide's football program reported $103.9 million in revenue for 2016 and posted a $47 million profit. That's up 3.6% from last year.

According to a CNN Money article.

The least valuable NFL team had profits of $126M on revenue of over $400m.

So I suspect the answer is a strong "no", but they're at least in the same zipcode if not the same ballpark.

The least valuable NFL team - the Bills - had $86m in operating income.[1] Net profit would be lower.

The Cleveland Browns only had $32m in operating income, coming in as the 5th least valuable team. The Oakland Raiders were the 12th most valuable, with $28m in operating income (of course their value is high due to other factors).

Seems plausible that Alabama's program is worth over a billion dollars solidly. The value boost of being in the NFL is obviously what really separates the situations, regardless of comparable incomes.

[1] https://www.forbes.com/teams/buffalo-bills/?list=nfl-valuati...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2019/09/04/the-nfls...

Does that include sales of things like generic UofA apparel and stickers? There's a great deal of UofA 'stuff' that isn't labeled football.

If most teams allow players to be paid, and Alabama doesn't want to play those teams, their position in the market will plummet. If you don't think that can happen, review the Nebraska Cornhuskers' history.