The Athletic has Notre Dame as a top-3 most valuable football program

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Notre Dame just signed a record-breaking jersey patch contract this week, showing its powerful status among college football’s elite.

This week The Athletic gave the Irish even more ammo as they were ranked as the No. 3 most valuable program in the sport at an evaluation of $2.1 billion. Just two teams were above Notre Dame, Texas at the top followed by Ohio State, showing the top status that they possess.

Only four teams were above the $2 billion marker, the top three along with Michigan. Georgia was just below that marker then Alabama, Oklahoma tied with USC at No. 7, then Tennessee and Penn State to round out the top-10. It’s a list of some of the top programs nationally, even if some of them have fallen on hard times.

This list differs from one shared earlier in the year, as it looks like the Irish have gained tons of value since then. CNBC did one in 2025, and Notre Dame was much lower on that list as well. What this tells us is that the Irish brand continues to get stronger and stronger, and there’s no signs of it slowing down with head coach Marcus Freeman leading the program.

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This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: The Athletic has Notre Dame as a top-3 most valuable football program

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