The Average University of Louisville Basketball Player Is Worth $1.5 Million Per Year

For most big-time college sports programs the men's basketball team is a distant second to football in terms of revenue. But considering less operating expenses and a fewer number of athletes, the average men's basketball player is actually worth a lot more than their football counterparts.

We recently took a look at what college football players would be worth if the NCAA used a similar method of dispersing revenue as used by the NFL and the University of Texas came out on top with an average value of $605,000 for their 85 scholarship athletes. Using the same method for men's basketball, the University of Louisville comes out on top with an average annual value of $1.5 million for their 13 scholarships players.

We calculated the Fair Market Value of college basketball players for the 20 men's basketball programs with the most annual revenue. Using the NBA's most recent collective bargaining agreement in which the players receive a minimum of 49% of all revenue, each program's revenue was split between the school (51%) and the athletes (49%) with the players' share split evenly among the 13 scholarship players.

In all, four programs have men's basketball players that on average are worth at least $1 million per year. Some of the value goes back into scholarships, including living expenses. But that value is typically less than $50,000 per year, per athlete.