According to this Wall Street Journal story -- based on research we don't fully comprehend by a college professor -- the Gophers men's basketball program would be the 10th-most valuable in all of Division I (if, of course, such things could be bought and sold. We all know college athletics is about the purity of the game and not money).

The ranking puts the Gophers' value at $87.9 million, which is third in the Big Ten -- behind only Indiana and Ohio State, and just AHEAD of Wisconsin. It also puts Minnesota's value somehow ahead of the value of Kentucky, which comes in 16th. Again, we don't completely understand the metric, which is described thusly:

Among other factors, the study examined each program's revenues and expenses and made cash-flow adjustments, risk assessments and growth projections for every school.

But please feel free to have a look.