> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.redeyebr.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Football built this empire - URL: https://www.redeyebr.com/football-built-this-empire/ - Published: 2026-04-01T00:08:01.000Z - Updated: 2026-04-01T00:08:01.000Z - Description: LSU Athletics is not a diversified sports portfolio. Football pays for everything else. To understand the financial strain on the department, start with what each sport earns and what it costs. - Author: JR Ball - Tags: News, Analysis *CNBC* valued LSU Athletics at **$1.05 billion** in 2025—12th among all college programs nationally. A billion-dollar enterprise. It’s big business and an economic driver in Baton Rouge and across the state. Strip out football and you have roughly $200–270 million in combined value across the remaining programs. Ten sports. Hundreds of athletes. Eight baseball national championships. A gymnastics program that just won a national title in front of three consecutive sold-out arenas. Collectively, they’re **worth about a quarter of what one program generates alone**. **What it means:** LSU Athletics isn't a diversified sports portfolio. **It's a football franchise that funds everything else**. Understanding what each program is actually worth—and what it's costing—is the first step toward understanding the financial pressure building across the entire department. **The crown jewel:** Football generated $117.5 million in revenue against $50.7 million in expenses in FY2025—**a record $66.8 million surplus**. A 57% profit margin. It has never cleared $60 million in profit before. Apply a 6–7x revenue multiple—justified by the SEC media contract, Death Valley's 102,000-seat footprint and a blue-chip NIL brand—and football's standalone value lands at an estimated **$750–850 million**—a near-NFL-caliber franchise with a captive regional fanbase and an SEC media deal escalating through 2034. - It is effectively **75–80 cents of every dollar in LSU's $1.05 billion valuation**. **The remaining portfolio:** Everything else, except men’s basketball, runs at a loss. Some of those losses are strategic investments. Some are compliance obligations. The difference matters. **Men's basketball** is the one program that can claim structural profitability—$2.5 million net in FY2025, four straight years in the black, almost entirely because of the SEC's television contract. Media rights contributed $6.8 million even in a 14–18 season. The Will Wade hire is a signal that LSU isn't satisfied with the floor. - **Estimated valuation:** $75–100 million. The floor is the SEC contract. Without a tournament run, the value remains on the floor. **Women's basketball** loses $7.9 million annually. Mulkey's $6 million salary structure is the primary driver. But the national brand—back-to-back Elite Eights, Flau'jae Johnson, the most visible women's program in the SEC not named South Carolina—generates media cycles no other non-football LSU program can approach. The program receives no SEC or NCAA media distributions, the single largest structural gap in the portfolio. - **Estimated valuation:** $50–70 million. In five years, potentially double. **Baseball** is the regional soul of the program. Eight national championships. A $10 million revenue base built almost entirely on tickets and contributions. A $921K deficit in the year it won the national title. Alex Box Stadium is a civic institution. - **Estimated valuation:** $40–55 million—comparable to a Triple-A franchise with significantly better brand equity. The College World Series is the revenue catalyst. It isn't guaranteed annually. **Gymnastics** is the department's most compelling paradox. The 2024 national champions finished first nationally in attendance with three consecutive sold-out PMAC crowds—and generated under $700,000 in direct revenue against a $3.3 million cost base. The Olivia Dunne NIL era made LSU gymnastics a national media property well beyond the sport's traditional audience. Dunne's graduation, along with nine other seniors, creates real near-term brand risk. - **Estimated valuation:** $20–30 million—almost entirely optionality, if the monetization thesis holds. Less if it doesn't. **Track and field** owns the most championship hardware on campus—women's outdoor alone has 14 national titles, women's indoor 11—and generates almost no commercial revenue. Institutional prestige. Olympic pipeline. Minimal commercial value. - **Estimated valuation:** $5–10 million. **The compliance tier**—softball, swimming, soccer, golf and tennis—collectively loses roughly $14–15 million annually. Softball has the most legitimate long-term upside as ESPN's investment in women's sports accelerates. The rest are nominal assets at best. - **Estimated valuation:** $8–17 million combined. **The full picture:** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c8/1d/c81d6c92-592f-461e-97d4-7573bc659b2b/content/images/2026/03/data-src-image-cd30c971-abf7-4237-b7b8-5505178e31a8.jpeg) **RedEye graphic* **The bottom line:** LSU Athletics is a billion-dollar holding company with one crown jewel and a portfolio of brand investments, civic obligations and compliance programs. --- *Editor's note: Program valuations are estimates based on a standard revenue multiple methodology used by* CNBC, Sportico *and* AthleticDirectorU *to value college athletic programs. Individual sport valuations apply a 4–7x revenue multiple adjusted for conference affiliation, brand strength, NIL ecosystem, media rights access and profit/loss trajectory. Financial data sourced from LSU's FY2025 NCAA financial report. Valuations reflect open-market estimates only and do not represent actual transaction values.* ## Sign up for RedEye Journalism to kickstart Baton Rouge Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.