Part 2: Wall Street Journal Football Valuation https://graphics.wsj.com/table/COUNT_09212017

The WSJ valued each football team with some exceptions: Navy, Tulane, Tulsa, Charlotte, Old Dominion, UTSA, UMass, Air Force, App State, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, South Alabama, Texas State, and Coastal Carolina. I included New Mexico State and Idaho with the Sun Belt despite them leaving the conference after this season.

Highest Average/Median:
1. SEC - $523,416,429; $503,810,000
2. Big Ten - $415,748,643; $298,529,000
3. Big 12 - $376,373,300; $221,922,000
4. PAC 12 - $253,766,417; $222,748,000
5. ACC - $182,383,929; $164,716,500

6. American - $46,810,778; $40,669,000
7. Mountain West - $29,126,000; $26,284,000
8. Conference USA - $19.063,900; $19,333,000
9. MAC - $15,201,167; $15,220,000
10. Sun Belt - $10,496,667; $10,346,500

Independent - $331,303,333; $98,924,000

There are only 14 schools above the SEC's median and seven are not in the SEC already. Texas (#2) and Oklahoma (#3) joining the SEC or Big Ten are the only pair that can improve either conference (assuming no SEC or Big Ten school jumps themselves). The Big Ten has slightly more wiggle room as some PAC 12 schools and Clemson/Florida State could improve the conference a little bit. It's a little surprising that the Big 12 is so high when they are generally considered the most likely to be pulled apart. Granted, Texas and Oklahoma are the ones providing almost all of the value, but they are easily ahead of both the PAC 12 and ACC. Speaking of the ACC, they are once again weighed down by Wake Forest, Duke, Boston College, Pittsburgh, and Syracuse. I could see the schools at the top being antsy to improve the conference.

As for Liberty, here are some benchmarks:

Being top 100 puts you on par with New Mexico at $15,380,000.
Being top 80 puts you on par with North Texas at $29,266,000.
Being at the lowest P5 school puts you on par with Wake Forest at $52,940,000 at 70th overall.
Being at the highest G5 school puts you on par with BYU at $98,924,000 at 60th overall.

To reach P5 candidacy, LU likely has to be around top 30 which places them at $277,203,000 (Kansas State). That would put them above over half the P5. That wouldn't be good enough for the SEC or Big Ten but should be good enough to the ACC and PAC 12 (but unlikely invited for other reasons: UVA and VT for the ACC and geography and conservative values for the PAC 12) and is borderline to the Big 12. If LU were to skyrocket up to Big 12 material, we'd be a great travel partner for West Virginia who is low on the list at 66 and the worst Big 12 school which is unlike their attendance figure.