Forbes: USC 17th most valuable football program

South Carolina has the 17th most valuable college football team in the country, according to Forbes Magazine.

Seven of the top 10 teams come from the SEC, led by LSU at fourth. The Tigers are worth $102 million.

Forbes reported that the 20 most valuable teams are worth an average $86 million with team revenue of $65 million.

LSU earned the SEC a $22.3 million payout for making last season’s BCS National Championship. Alabama, which defeated LSU in the title game, claimed a $6.1 million conference payday for being the SEC’s second team in a BCS game, according to Forbes.

The Texas Longhorns are college football’s most valuable team, worth $133 million, up from $129 million last year.

Forbes said it used a weighted scoring system to measure the value created for four areas: 1. value to its university (football profit contributed to academic programming, including football scholarships), 2. value to its athletics department (football profit that supports other athletics initiatives), 3. value to its conference (distribution of bowl game revenue) and 4. value to the surrounding community (estimated spending by visitors on days of home games).

The financial data is from the 2011-12 fiscal year. Each school reports its financial information to the Department of Education.

MOST VALUABLE PROGRAMS

(Numbers are in millions)

This story was originally published December 20, 2012 at 10:05 PM with the headline "Forbes: USC 17th most valuable football program."