The Ohio State Buckeyes are no longer the most valuable program in College Football.
Following a $700 million valuation drop, OSU has now been surpassed by two Lone Star State SEC schools, the Texas Longhorns and Texas A&M Aggies, as the highest-valued teams in the sport following the 2025 season.
The Austin American-Statesman's Zoe Collins Rath relayed the stats, which come from a study by Indiana University Columbus professor Ryan Brewer, while also picking on the Horns for their Week 1 loss to the Buckeyes last August.
"Even though Texas football could not beat Ohio State this year, it overtook the Buckeyes as the most valuable team in college football. And a chief rival (Texas A&M) wasn't far behind," Collins Rath wrote.
"The Longhorns, according to a study done by an Indiana University Columbus professor, have a valuation of nearly $2.2 billion; the Buckeyes were first place in last year's report with a value of more than $1.9 billion and fell to just over $1.5 billion this year. The number is calculated by examining revenue, economic shifts, cash flow, and industry trends."
Brewer explained his findings, explaining to the Wall Street Journal that "There's more value in college football than there's ever been ... Even though they're paying players and it's more expensive, it's also worth more."
Ohio State has nothing to worry about...yet
It's an obvious fact that Texas billionaires are going to want to spend on their team until they win, and probably after that. Football is gospel in the Lone Star State. Until those deep-walleted donors relent, the UTs and Texas A&Ms of the world will have their biggest boosters, and many hard-working non-millionaires, giving their all to make that happen.
Ohio State spent big in 2024, and it paid off. Then they spent big in 2025, and that resulted in a perfect regular season, and led many to believe they were still the No. 2 team in the country this past campaign, despite not winning a CFP game.
There's no reason to think the Buckeyes won't retain their recruiting dominance and use those Les Wexner network funds every cycle moving forward, indefinitely. Whether or not the Ohio State University remains the place all the highest-rated recruits want to go is the real question.
Obviously, other schools are getting their piece of the pie now. Will more be inclined to consider Austin and College Station, Texas, for the alluring oil money? Will Curt Cignetti be able to successfully negative recruit Columbus to make the Indiana Hoosiers the new Big Ten overlord for the foreseeable future? Was Brian Hartline the biggest reason for the team's continued success in bringing on game-changing skill position talent for the better part of the last decade?
There are a lot of questions, but there's plenty of time for OSU to become the highest-valued team again.
Since, ultimately, it's a rough estimate from a study based on where the narrative winds are blowing recently. Right the ship, and the studies will be biased towards the Buckeyes again.