Business

CNBC ranks the 75 most valuable college athletic programs.
The rankings exclude military academies and are limited to schools that participate in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision, or FBS, which tend to attract top players.
The top of the list is dominated by SEC and Big Ten schools, due largely to each conference’s massive media rights deals.

With major college sports programs collectively generating billions in revenue each year, private investors are looking to get a piece of the action.
But how much is a college sports program worth?

It’s a question CNBC set out to answer after speaking with people in the private equity world who are seeking to invest in college sports.
Below, CNBC ranks the 75 most valuable college athletic programs. The rankings exclude military academies and are limited to schools that participate in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision, or FBS, which tend to attract top players.
Ohio State University is the most valuable athletic program, worth an estimated $1.27 billion. The Buckeyes had $280 million in revenue in 2023, the most of any school. Other factors that helped propel the Buckeyes to the top of the rankings are an alumni base of over 600,000, a fan base of more than 11 million, boosters that donated nearly $60 million last year, and a football team that routinely has attendance of over 100,000 at its games.
It isn’t surprising that the top of the list is dominated by SEC and Big Ten schools — due largely to each conference’s massive media rights deals.
In aggregate, the SEC is worth $13.3 billion, an average of $832 million per school; followed by the Big Ten at $13.2 billion, an average of $734 million per school; the ACC at $9.6 billion, or $562 million per school; and the Big 12, at $6.7 billion, or $420 million per school.

The information used to compile the valuations comes courtesy of Jason Belzer, publisher of AthleticDirectorU, who has advised universities on name, image and likeness deals and is now doing the same for athletic departments seeking private equity. AthleticDirectorU has an expansive database of college athletic program financials and information.
The revenue figures are from the Department of Education’s Equity in Athletics Data Analysis and the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for the fiscal year 2023. The list is reflective of the current enterprise value of each program, starting with a base revenue multiple of four for all institutions, and then adjusting the multiple for variables, including conference affiliation, estimated NIL spend, school subsidies, number of alumni and other factors that can catalyze future revenue growth and profitability. 
CNBC and Belzer also incorporated the expertise of several people knowledgeable about athletic program valuations to determine the rankings, who requested anonymity in order to discuss details of the programs.

College Athletics Valuations 2024

Rank
Program
Valuation
Revenue
Conference
City
Ownership

1.
Ohio State University
$1.32B
$280M
Big Ten
Columbus, OH
public

2.
University of Texas at Austin
$1.28B
$271M
SEC
Austin, TX
public

3.
Texas A&M University
$1.26B
$279M
SEC
College Station, TX
public

4.
University of Michigan
$1.06B
$230M
Big Ten
Ann Arbor, MI
public

5.
University of Alabama
$978M
$200M
SEC
Tuscaloosa, AL
public

6.
University of Notre Dame
$969M
$224M
ACC
Notre Dame, IN
private

7.
University of Georgia
$950M
$210M
SEC
Athens, GA
public

8.
University of Nebraska
$943M
$205M
Big Ten
Lincoln, NE
public

9.
University of Tennessee
$940M
$202M
SEC
Knoxville, TN
public

10.
University of Oklahoma
$928M
$199M
SEC
Norman, OK
public

11.
Penn State University
$924M
$202M
Big Ten
University Park, PA
public

12.
University of Southern California
$923M
$212M
Big Ten
Los Angeles, CA
private

13.
Louisiana State University
$916M
$200M
SEC
Baton Rouge, LA
public

14.
University of Florida
$865M
$189M
SEC
Gainesville, FL
public

15.
University of Wisconsin
$838M
$198M
Big Ten
Madison, WI
public

16.
Clemson University
$800M
$196M
ACC
Clemson, SC
public

17.
University of Oregon
$780M
$151M
Big Ten
Eugene, OR
public

18.
University of Arkansas
$776M
$167M
SEC
Fayetteville, AR
public

19.
University of Kentucky
$775M
$174M
SEC
Lexington, KY
public

20.
Auburn University
$772M
$195M
SEC
Auburn, AL
public

21.
University of Iowa
$747M
$167M
Big Ten
Iowa City, IA
public

22.
Michigan State University
$740M
$171M
Big Ten
East Lansing, MI
public

23.
Stanford University
$687M
$180M
ACC
Stanford, CA
private

24.
Florida State University
$673M
$170M
ACC
Tallahassee, FL
public

25.
University of Illinois
$665M
$148M
Big Ten
Champaign, IL
public

26.
Duke University
$659M
$153M
ACC
Durham, NC
private

27.
University of Washington
$658M
$152M
Big Ten
Seattle, WA
public

28.
Indiana University
$653M
$145M
Big Ten
Indianapolis, IN
public

29.
University of Mississippi
$651M
$142M
SEC
Oxford, MS
public

30.
University of South Carolina
$650M
$160M
SEC
Columbia, SC
public

31.
University of Miami
$639M
$160M
ACC
Coral Gables, FL
private

32.
University of Minnesota
$637M
$149M
Big Ten
Minneapolis, MN
public

33.
Texas Tech University
$619M
$147M
Big 12
Lubbock, TX
public

34.
University of Louisville
$595M
$143M
ACC
Louisville, KY
public

35.
University of Missouri
$590M
$142M
SEC
Columbia, MO
public

36.
North Carolina State University
$581M
$121M
ACC
Raleigh, NC
public

37.
Purdue University
$567M
$124M
Big Ten
West Lafayette, IN
public

38.
University of Kansas
$553M
$128M
Big 12
Lawrence, KS
public

39.
Vanderbilt University
$551M
$125M
SEC
Nashville, TN
private

40.
Texas Christian University
$542M
$149M
Big 12
Fort Worth, TX
private

41.
UNC-Chapel Hill
$539M
$139M
ACC
Chapel Hill, NC
public

42.
University of Arizona
$532M
$143M
Big 12
Tucson, AZ
public

43.
University of Pittsburgh
$524M
$137M
ACC
Pittsburgh, PA
public

44.
Mississippi State University
$523M
$116M
SEC
Starkville, MS
public

45.
Baylor University
$513M
$137M
Big 12
Waco, TX
private

46.
University of Virginia
$506M
$141M
ACC
Charlottesville, VA
public

47.
Oklahoma State University
$500M
$122M
Big 12
Stillwater, OK
public

48.
Georgia Tech
$498M
$134M
ACC
Atlanta, GA
public

49.
Iowa State University
$492M
$116M
Big 12
Ames, IA
public

50.
Syracuse University
$487M
$114M
ACC
Syracuse, NY
private

51.
Northwestern University
$486M
$118M
Big Ten
Evanston, IL
private

52.
University of Maryland
$477M
$121M
Big Ten
College Park, MD
public

53.
Virginia Tech
$474M
$130M
ACC
Blacksburg, VA
public

54.
University of California, Los Angeles
$472M
$105M
Big Ten
Los Angeles, CA
public

55.
University of Colorado
$470M
$127M
Big 12
Boulder, CO
public

56.
University of Utah
$468M
$126M
Big 12
Salt Lake City, UT
public

57.
Kansas State University
$444M
$102M
Big 12
Manhattan, KS
public

58.
Boston College
$443M
$118M
ACC
Chestnut Hill, MA
private

59.
Rutgers University
$417M
$125M
Big Ten
New Brunswick, NJ
public

60.
West Virginia University
$403M
$106M
Big 12
Morgantown, WV
public

61.
Washington State University
$392M
$79M
Pac-12
Pullman, WA
public

62.
University of California, Berkeley
$386M
$126M
ACC
Berkeley, CA
public

63.
Wake Forest University
$362M
$97M
ACC
Winston-Salem, NC
private

64.
Brigham Young University
$357M
$106M
Big 12
Provo, UT
public

65.
Southern Methodist University
$327M
$86M
ACC
Dallas, TX
private

66.
Oregon State University
$326M
$92M
Pac-12
Corvallis, OR
public

67.
San Diego State University
$287M
$104M
MWC
San Diego, CA
public

68.
Arizona State University
$279M
$115M
Big 12
Tempe, AZ
public

69.
University of Cincinnati
$216M
$87M
Big 12
Cincinnati, OH
public

70.
University of Central Florida
$181M
$85M
Big 12
Orlando, FL
public

71.
University of Connecticut
$178M
$93M
Big East
Storrs, CT
public

72.
Boise State University
$176M
$61M
MWC
Boise, ID
public

73.
East Carolina University
$153M
$63M
AAC
Greenville, NC
public

74.
University of South Florida
$150M
$71M
AAC
Tampa, FL
public

75.
University of Memphis
$148M
$64M
AAC
Memphis, TN
public More

Mall owners are devoting more square footage to restaurants and bars in the hopes that diners will shop after dinner.
Malls are supplementing food court mainstays with more upscale, full-service restaurants, plus introducing food halls catered by local vendors.
Some large national chains, like the Cheesecake Factory, Chick-fil-A and Panda Express, are still winning over both customers and mall landlords, despite the shift.

Editor’s note: This is the third story in a three-part CNBC series about the future of U.S. shopping malls, as developers transform the spaces to add new retailers, experiences and even apartments. Read the first and second parts.
Malls used to be the destination for the buzziest stores. Now they’re home to the hottest restaurants.

The slow death of department stores and rise of online shopping have hurt U.S. shopping malls, particularly over the last decade. The once-essential shopping centers have seen their numbers drop from a peak of 2,500 in the 1980s to roughly 700 these days, according to Coresight Research.
But now many in the retail industry say that rumors of the mall’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. Many Gen Z consumers prefer to shop in person and love the mall experience. Creative solutions from developers have turned empty department stores into housing, bringing consumers even closer to stores.
And landlords are devoting more square footage to restaurants and bars, which have become a bigger draw to visit malls.
“It’s been a big shift,” said David Henkes, senior principal at Technomic, a market research firm focused on the restaurant industry. “It used to be that the shopping occasion drove people to the mall and then maybe you grabbed a bite to eat. In a lot of ways, that’s been flipped on its head. Now, the dining options drive people there, and then you’re hoping that they’re going to do a little shopping while they’re there.”
Yelp found that 17 of the 25 most popular mall brands, based on consumer interest, were restaurants, according to a report published in October.

Going back 10 or 20 years ago, restaurants accounted for only about 5% to 10% of general leasing area in malls operated by Brookfield Properties, according to Chris Brandon, the company’s senior vice president of leasing for eating and drinking retail. That would typically include a food court and several full-service restaurants. That’s changed in recent years.
“It’s increased an incredible amount over the last five to 10 years,” Brandon said. “In some of our shopping centers, we’re seeing 20% to 30% of the total [general leasing area] being dedicated to food, and that’s 100% by design.”
Brookfield’s portfolio of 129 malls include Tysons Galleria in McLean, Virginia; Christiana Mall in Newark, Delaware; and First Colony Mall in Sugar Land, Texas. Its mall restaurant tenants include more than 540 full-service eateries and around 2,000 fast-casual establishments.

More than the food court

Brookfield Properties gave the Staten Island Mall’s food court a facelift in 2018, with an upgraded look and new restaurants.
Source: Brookfield Properties

More than half a century ago, the Paramus Park shopping mall in New Jersey opened a food court on its second floor, becoming the first example of a successful mall food court in the U.S. A decade later, food courts had become of a staple of the American mall, helping the expansion of chains like Sbarro, Mrs. Fields and Auntie Anne’s.
Full-service chains like the Cheesecake Factory, TGI Fridays and California Pizza Kitchen also became mall mainstays.
But those familiar names are no longer the only options for shoppers. These days, malls offer a much wider selection of eateries and refreshments, from regional restaurants to local chefs and emerging bubble tea chains.
“What malls are looking for tend to be more high end, what we might call a ‘contemporary casual’ restaurant,” Henkes said. “It’s not fine dining, per se, but it’s sort of that notch up from just traditional casual.”
Those “contemporary casual” eateries include upscale options like Korean barbeque, steakhouses or sushi. While price points vary, a meal at these new mall eateries will likely cost upwards of $30 per person, if not more.
For James Cook, head of retail research for real estate firm JLL, the expansion in dining options offers an experience that’s familiar – but still elevated.
“The distinction that I make is that I’m not necessarily dressing up nice to go to a mall,” he said. “This is a restaurant where I could pay more money, but not necessarily feel like I have to wear a suit jacket or anything like that.”
The pandemic also made malls a more attractive option to restaurateurs.
During lockdowns, operators saw their traffic disappear. Even when consumers started dining out and commuting again, restaurants in central business districts still struggled to attract diners, given the new hybrid workforce and other changes to consumer behavior. But malls bounced back.
“Even today, foot traffic to suburban malls is back above pre-pandemic levels, where in the cities and the city centers, foot traffic has not returned,” JLL’s Cook said.
That foot traffic also appeals to emerging chains that are looking to expand quickly. Restaurant companies like Sweetgreen and Mendocino Farms have opened new locations in malls as they seek to grow their sales and brand awareness.
“The one thing that our properties can offer is scale, and scale really quickly. If they’re used to doing X in their food truck, now they’re doing X times two or three,” Brandon said.
For example, Din Tai Fung, a Taiwanese restaurant chain, has honed in on malls for its U.S. expansion, according to Alison Lin, Yelp’s head of restaurants. Upcoming locations will open in Scottsdale’s Fashion Square and Brea Mall in Southern California, according to the chain’s website. Din Tai Fung ranked second in Yelp’s report on most popular mall brands by consumer interest. (Din Tai Fung declined to comment).

The new food court? Food halls

People visit a food court in Brooklyn on July 11, 2024 in New York City. 
Spencer Platt | Getty Images

As malls devote more space to food and drinks, food courts have been supplemented by a newer, more upscale alternative: food halls.
Like food courts, food halls offer an array of dining options, usually from stalls, with general seating available once diners have purchased and picked up their food and drinks.
But unlike food courts, the halls typically offer more expensive options, usually touting ties to local chefs and promising more interesting cuisine than that found at a food court. While a food court sells fare from national chains, food halls typically stick to local vendors that have few locations.
“A food court is to give you a burger, fries or a slice of pizza to keep you shopping longer at the mall,” Cook said. “A food hall is part of the experience.”
Oftentimes, food halls feature multiple vendors. But Eataly is one exception.

The newly opened Eataly inside Short Hills Mall in New Jersey sells fresh pasta, in addition to other artisanal groceries.
Source: Eataly

The Italian chain sells itself as a trip to Italy, without the plane ride. Its large locations feature full-service restaurants; artisanal groceries; quick-service counters that sell gelato, pizza and espresso; along with cooking classes. Eight of Eataly’s 13 U.S. locations are in malls, with more on the way next year.
Eataly’s North American CEO Tommaso Bruso joined the company last year after two decades in the fashion industry, leading mall brands like Bennetton and Diesel.
“People go to the mall for shopping, but also they go for a cultural experience,” Bruso said, adding that Eataly has found success with consumers both in and outside of malls.
But food halls haven’t won over everyone. Brandon said that food courts have performed better for Brookfield’s malls. He pointed to Chick-fil-A and Panda Express as two tenants that typically see strong sales in food courts. In 2023, the average annual revenue for a mall location of a Chick-fil-A was $4.5 million; the chain’s best-performing mall restaurant raked in nearly $19 million in annual sales, according to franchise disclosure documents.

The cheesecake factor

Neon sign of The Cheesecake Factory restaurant glowing at dusk, Westfield Mall, San Jose, California, December 2, 2023. 
Smith Collection | Gado | Archive Photos | Getty Images

Even with more competition than ever for shoppers, The Cheesecake Factory has managed to stay on top. And it’s showing how restaurants can help a broader mall.
The chain, known for its comprehensive menu and towering columns, was ranked number one in Yelp’s mall brand report.
It’s been a rocky year for the company. Like many restaurants, the chain has struggled to attract diners, many of whom have pulled back their restaurant spending. In its latest quarter, the company’s same-store sales grew just 1.6%. Activist investors have also been putting pressure on the company to spin off its smaller brands, like North Italia. (The Cheesecake Factory declined to comment.)
Still, the company is outperforming the broader casual-dining category, based on metrics provided by industry tracker Black Box Intelligence.
Shares of the Cheesecake Factory have risen 43% this year, outstripping the S&P 500’s gains of 27% over the same period.
While fellow mall staples like California Pizza Kitchen and TGI Fridays have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in recent years, the Cheesecake Factory has escaped the same fate.
And it’s maybe even helped its landlords’ finances. Enclosed malls with a Cheesecake Factory location are more likely to be current on their loan payments, according to a Moody’s Analytics report from 2023. Author Matt Reidy, the director of commercial real estate economics for Moody’s, said it was more likely the result the company’s strong site selection, rather than cheesecakes saving a mall.
Still, Reidy said having one of the restaurant’s locations helps. And Brookfield’s Brandon agrees.
“My god, are they productive. It’s pretty incredible what they’re able to do, and they’re a valued partner of ours. We have dozens of leases with them, and we truly value them as a tenant,” he said. More

Darden Restaurants’ quarterly earnings revenue was in line with analysts’ expectations.
The company’s same-store sales rose 2.4% in its latest quarter.

A sign hangs on the front of an Olive Garden restaurant on June 22, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois.
Scott Olsen | Getty Images

Darden Restaurants on Thursday reported quarterly earnings and revenue that met analysts’ expectations and better-than-expected same-store sales growth at Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse.
Shares of the company rose 8% in premarket trading.

Here’s what the company reported, which may not compare with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: $2.03 adjusted. That may not compare with the $2.02 expected
Revenue: $2.89 billion. That may not compare with the $2.9 billion expected

Darden reported fiscal second-quarter net income of $215.1 million, or $1.82 per share, up from $212.1 million, or $1.76 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding costs related to its acquisition of Chuy’s, the restaurant company earned $2.03 per share.
Net sales rose 6% to $2.89 billion.
Darden’s same-store sales rose 2.4%, beating StreetAccount estimates of 1.5%.

LongHorn Steakhouse reported same-store sales growth of 7.5%. The casual-dining chain has been a top performer in Darden’s portfolio in recent years, winning over customers with both the quality of its food and its prices. Wall Street was expecting the chain to report same-store sales growth of 4.1%.
Olive Garden, which accounts for more than 40% of Darden’s quarterly revenue, saw same-store sales growth of 2% in the quarter. Analysts were anticipating same-store sales growth of 1.4%, according to StreetAccount.
Darden’s fine-dining segment, which includes The Capital Grille and Ruth’s Chris Steak House, reported same-store sales declines of 5.8%, steeper than the 2.8% decrease expected by analysts. Fine-dining chains’ higher prices have scared away many consumers who are trying to spend less at restaurants.
The company’s last remaining segment, which includes Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen and Yard House, saw same-store sales growth of 0.7%, in line with estimates.
Darden added 39 net new locations in the quarter, as well as 103 Chuy’s restaurants. Darden completed its $605 million acquisition of the Tex-Mex chain in October.
The company updated its fiscal 2025 outlook to include Chuy’s results, although the chain won’t be included in its same-store sales metrics until the fiscal fourth quarter in 2026. The company now anticipates total sales of $12.1 billion, up from its prior estimate of $11.8 billion to $11.9 billion. Darden reiterated its forecast for net earnings per share from continuing operations of $9.40 to $9.60. More

Vuori reached a $5.5 billion valuation after an investment round led by General Atlantic and Stripes.
Private equity’s interest in the athleisure company comes at a time when many investors are fleeing the consumer sector, indicating Vuori’s profitable business model is setting it apart from competitors.
The coastal California company, known for its joggers and shorts, is planning for an IPO, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.

When athleisure brand Vuori launched in 2015, it was headquartered in a garage, sold only men’s shorts and couldn’t get investors to give it the time of day. 
Now, the Carlsbad, California, retailer is expanding globally, backed by a string of marquee investors including General Atlantic, SoftBank and Norwest Venture Partners, after raising $825 million in November in a funding round that valued the company at $5.5 billion.  

It’s become the envy of incumbents such as Lululemon, Gap’s Athleta and Levi’s Beyond Yoga, and it’s poised to be one of the retail industry’s biggest IPOs when it eventually files to go public, which people close to the company say it plans to do.
“It’s a notable deal for the category it’s in … you haven’t seen many deals in that market at all over the last couple of years, and the deals that have happened have been more, I’d say, challenged, or more at value-oriented situations,” Matthew Tingler, a managing director in Baird’s global consumer and retail investment banking group, said of the recent funding round.
“Vuori’s bringing a lot of excitement and growth to the market,” added Tingler, an expert in the athletic apparel space who wasn’t involved in the transaction. “In ways, they’ve been taking share in that athleisure market broadly … they’re challenging the legacy players of Athleta and Lululemon.” 

Vuori’s store in the Flatiron District of New York City.
Natalie Rice | CNBC

As Vuori went from a no-name brand to one of the most highly valued private apparel retailers on the planet, it saw robust sales growth and consistent profitability, winning over consumers in a crowded space with its coastal California take on athleisure.
“Vuori competes on a differentiated product, a differentiated brand, a differentiated store experience, differentiated materials,” Vuori CEO and founder Joe Kudla told CNBC in an interview. “If you were to just survey our customer base [and ask], ‘Why is Vuori so special?’ They would tell you it’s because of our product, it’s because of the comfort, the textile, the fabrics we work with, and the fit. We are all about product, product, product, and that’s ultimately what results in great performance in our industry.” 

Despite its success, Vuori faces challenges ahead. The company operates in a crowded athleisure space that analysts aren’t sure will grow as quickly as it has in the past. Some see it as one of the fastest-growing apparel categories, while others expect it to slow as consumers look to dress up after years of dressing down.
Customers also seem to be worrying about whether Vuori’s products will stay the same as it scales and faces the demands of being a publicly traded company.
“If you go look at message boards right now, the thing that consumers of Vuori are most concerned about is, is the quality of the fabric going to fall?” said Liston Pitman, a strategy director with Eatbigfish and an expert in challenger brands. “Are they going to water down the brand that I love as an exchange for growth?”

Vuori’s Flatiron store.
Natalie Rice | CNBC

Plus, Vuori faces the same issues as other consumer discretionary companies. Retailers have been forced to work harder to win customer dollars, and demand has been unsteady as consumers think twice before buying things that may be wants rather than needs.

Vuori pulls ahead in the yoga wars

Since it is still private, not much is known about Vuori’s financial performance. But analysts estimate that it generates around $1 billion in annual revenue, and the company says it has been profitable since 2017. 
While its sales are a fraction of the $431 billion global athleisure market, Vuori has seen steady growth and has outperformed the overall sportswear market at least since 2020, according to data from Euromonitor and sales estimates from Earnest. As of the end of October, Vuori has grown sales by 23% so far this year at a time when the overall sportswear market is expected to grow by 4.3%. Last year, it grew 44% while the sportswear market expanded by only 2.4%. 

Retail analyst Randy Konik, a managing director with Jefferies, said Vuori and fellow upstart Alo Yoga have been so successful in part because they’re taking share from Lululemon, which he said has alienated its primary customer base as it has expanded into new categories. 
“Five years ago, Alo and Vuori were … nothing burgers, and that’s when Lululemon was growing 20% a year, whatever it is, or more. Today, you look at the numbers and you’re like, wait a second, the business is flat,” said Konik, referring to Lululemon’s largest market, the Americas. “It’s not growing, and yet it’s coinciding with the hypergrowth of Alo and Vuori. So … in my opinion, the data proves that that is a market share issue.”

A customer exits a Lululemon store in New York on Aug. 22, 2024.
Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Analytics firm GlobalData found that Lululemon’s customers are now spending more at Vuori than they did previously. In 2018, 1.2% of Lululemon’s customers shopped at Vuori, but that number grew to 7.8% as of the end of November.
Last week, the longtime category leader gave a cautious outlook for the all-important holiday shopping season as it contends with slowing growth and product missteps. It wasn’t asked about the competitive threats it’s facing but acknowledged that its core customer is slowing down. 

Competitive threat 

Vuori’s valuation and interest from private equity come as investors flee the consumer sector. Its success has left some industry observers scratching their heads and wondering: How can a leggings and joggers company be worth this much, in this economy? Analysts say it comes down to Vuori’s business model, its ability to grow profitably and its product assortment, which has resonated with shoppers.
Kudla said the company was laser focused on growing profitably from the beginning because it really didn’t have another choice. Unlike other direct-to-consumer brands that were raising piles of cash at the time, investors weren’t interested in the mens-only brand that Kudla was pitching.
So he was forced to bootstrap the company using funding from family and friends. 
“We developed a working capital model that would self-fund the business, and so we were built very counter to the trend of the time, and that resulted in a really great business with a lot of discipline,” said Kudla, who was a CPA for Ernst & Young before he got into fashion. “I managed the entire business through this complicated spreadsheet, so every decision that I made, I could forecast the cash-flow impact six months from today.” 

Vuori was CEO Joe Kudla’s third attempt at a startup — and could have easily been his last.
Source: Vuori

To save money, Kudla didn’t pay himself for two years, ran the business out of a garage and hired employees who were willing to trade equity for compensation. Perhaps most importantly, he developed partnerships with his suppliers, which alleviated the cash-intensive burden of acquiring inventory and paying for it up front. 
“I started treating our suppliers like they were investors in the business, and really helping them see the vision for what we were building,” said Kudla. “I was able to convince our early factory partners to give us really great terms so that I could receive the inventory, sell it, collect cash from my wholesale partners, or sell it direct to consumer and then pay for the inventory, and that strategy ultimately led me to building a working capital model that self-funded our growth.” 
While Vuori started out as a purely online business, Kudla wasn’t precious about partnering with wholesalers at a time when many founders in the direct-to-consumer space were against the idea. By getting his products on the shelves at REI in the brand’s early days, he was able to build awareness and acquire customers in a way that didn’t drain Vuori’s balance sheet. 

Vuori’s Flatiron store.
Natalie Rice | CNBC

“We got profitable in 2017, we started generating free cash flow … there was no institutional capital involved in our business, no venture money involved in our business, until 2019, when we were already very profitable and on a pretty strong growth trajectory,” said Kudla. 
Years later, Kudla’s approach almost feels prescient. Many of the DTC peers that Vuori came up with are now teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, unable to make the unit economics of their business work. Investors no longer have patience for companies that have no path to profitability.
Now, most brands and retailers recognize that selling only online often doesn’t work. It has proven critical to partner with wholesalers and open up stores, alongside building direct channels online.
“I like how [Vuori is] going about growth,” said Jessica Ramirez, senior research analyst at Jane Hali & Associates. “With REI, it was one of their top accounts, and I feel like it was a different way of going into wholesale, but very targeted wholesale, so knowing that that is a customer that would be purchasing a particular kind of activewear.”
Vuori’s investment from General Atlantic and Stripes in November is further evidence of a robust balance sheet. The deal was structured as a secondary tender offer, which allowed early investors to sell their shares and cash in. None of it went to the balance sheet, and Vuori didn’t need new funding for its aggressive growth plans, which include expanding into Europe and Asia and having 100 stores by 2026, said Kudla. 
“We’re going to continue growing the business the same way we’ve always grown the business, which is very calculated with a lot of discipline,” he said. 

Trouble at Lululemon 

In many ways, the brands jostling for share in the crowded athleisure space can blur together. They all sell leggings, they all sell sports bras, and they’re all looking to win over consumers with their unique blend of comfort, style and performance. The same can be said for the broader apparel industry, which is why having products that stand out separates the industry’s winners and losers.
Fans of Vuori say the brand’s quality, fit, fabric and comfort are what sets it apart from competitors and keeps them coming back. Meanwhile, product missteps at Lululemon have been blamed for a sales slowdown in its largest region, the Americas. 

Vuori’s Flatiron store.
Natalie Rice | CNBC

In the three months ended April 28, Lululemon’s comparable sales in the Americas were flat after the company failed to offer the right color assortment in leggings and the sizes that customers desired. 
In early July, Lululemon launched its new Breezethrough leggings, designed for hot yoga classes, but ended up yanking them from the shelves after it received complaints about the product’s unflattering fit. Its lack of desirable new products is also limiting how much Lululemon’s core customer is spending with the brand, the company said when reporting fiscal third-quarter earnings Dec. 5. The company said it expects its assortment to be back in line with historical levels in 2025, which Truist anticipates will be the “key driver” for better U.S. sales, especially as it laps easier comparisons from the year-ago period. 
“It seems that they’ve snoozed on where the customer is going … you have to remember that today’s consumer isn’t necessarily a loyal consumer,” said Ramirez.
“Fabric does matter, movement matters … if someone you know mentions there’s another brand that, ‘Oh, you know it held me in better, or I was able to run quicker, I didn’t sweat as much, I didn’t feel as gross,’ these very, like, small things that do matter in your performance, people will give them a try.”
— Additional reporting by Natalie Rice More

Private equity and venture capital enterprises such as College Sports Tomorrow, Smash Capital and Collegiate Athletics Solutions are looking to buy in to NCAA sports programs.
The schools with the most valuable athletic programs sit in the best position to capitalize.
Football generates roughly 75% of athletic program revenue at typical Power 4 schools, according to people familiar with the economics.

Donovan Edwards #7 of the Michigan Wolverines hurdles a tackle attempt by Michael Taaffe #16 of the Texas Longhorns during the first half of a college football game at Michigan Stadium on September 07, 2024 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Aaron J. Thornton | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

There’s a mad dash for cash in college sports.
Between multibillion-dollar television deals, the institution of the transfer portal and the escalation of NIL —name, image and likeness — deals for athletes, college athletic programs, particularly football, have never looked more lucrative.

Now private equity and venture capital enterprises such as College Sports Tomorrow, Smash Capital and Collegiate Athletics Solutions are looking to buy in, and the schools with the most valuable athletic programs sit in the best position to capitalize.
At the very top of the heap are the schools that excel on the gridiron. According to people familiar with the economics, football generates roughly 75% of athletic program revenue at typical Power 4 schools, which include the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC conferences.
This year’s expanded, 12-team College Football Playoffs kick off Dec. 20. ESPN parent Disney signed a six-year extension in March for the rights to the games through 2031. The deal is worth an average of $1.3 billion annually, more than double the previous deal, according to media reports.
Given the fact that the SEC dominates the college football ratings, experts CNBC spoke with believe the conference will leapfrog the Big Ten with the richest television deal when its current agreement expires in 2033-34.
“The SEC is almost a super-conference and, because of its football teams, owns the most valuable content in college sports,” said Irwin Kishner, a partner at the corporate department of Herrick Feinstein and co-chair of its Sports Law Group.

Private equity, of course, is not a new concept for sports. In North America, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League and Major League Soccer have permitted private equity firms to own limited partner stakes for several years. The National Football League voted in August to allow select private equity investors to take minority stakes.
Now the attention is turning to college programs.
“As a business, college sports, particularly football, is performing well and continuing to grow, which is why investors are looking at the asset class,” said Greg Carey, the global co-head of sports franchise in investment banking at Goldman Sachs.
Institutional investors such as Collegiate Athletic Solutions — a proposal by RedBird Capital Partners and Weatherford Capital — would provide capital to help grow a school’s athletic revenue. In return, the private equity firms would get a cut.
There is also the belief that the business acumen from outside investors could drive profits even higher.
“There’s a big opportunity to drive EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] higher in college sports because there are easy ways to maintain quality while reducing expenses,” said Kishner.
And schools have incentive to bring on outside investors.
For one, a $2.8 billion settlement between the NCAA and the five largest conferences would award compensation to 14,000 students who were previously prevented from earning endorsement money. A hearing to grant final approval on the deal is scheduled to take place in April, but already schools are planning ahead for it.
And even among the biggest conferences, a gap in television revenue could cause a big competitive and economic disparity.
“Schools in the ACC and Big 12, as well as the bottom of the SEC and Big Ten who are generating less local commercial revenue, will have little choice but to take on private capital and operation expertise, or they are all but guaranteed to be left out of the top echelon of competition in the future,” said Jason Belzer, publisher of AthleticDirectorU, who has advised universities on NIL deals and is now doing the same for athletic departments seeking private equity.
To be sure, the move to private equity is complicated and could still be months off. Florida State has been reportedly working with JPMorgan Chase for about a year trying to raise institutional capital.
Yet, bankers and attorneys interviewed by CNBC believe private equity will eventually be investing in college athletic programs. More

Honda put nostalgia to the fore on December 18th when it announced that the Prelude, a nameplate last produced some 25 years ago, now being relaunched as a hybrid-electric, would come with the option of a system that simulates gear changes and combustion-engine noises. The message, however, was quickly drowned out by news with far more bearing on the Japanese carmaker’s future. It is considering merging with Nissan, a floundering domestic rival, to create the world’s third-largest carmaker by sales, behind only Toyota and Volkswagen. Yet joining together will not fix the problems of a duo stuck in the past. More

The number of extra bedrooms — defined as a bedroom in excess of the number of people in the home, and even including one for an office — has reached a new high, according to a new report from Realtor.com.
The seven-fold jump over the past 40 years comes as the number of people in any given household has declined.

Tim Kitchen | The Image Bank | Getty Images

There may not be a lot of homes for sale these days, but there is a lot of housing space sitting empty. In fact, the most in recorded history.
The number of extra bedrooms, which is defined as a bedroom in excess of the number of people in the home, and even including one for an office, has reached the highest level since the U.S. Census began recording this metric in 1970, according to a new report from Realtor.com.

Last year, which is the latest Census data available, the number of extra bedrooms reached 31.9 million, up from 31.3 million in 2022. Back in 1980, there were just 7 million extra bedrooms.
The fourfold jump comes as the number of people in any given household has declined, from a high of 3.1 persons per household in 1970 to a record low 2.5 per household in 2023.
“We are seeing more guest rooms for two main reasons: homes getting bigger and household size getting smaller,” said Ralph McLaughlin, senior economist at Realtor.com. “What’s more, we find that spare rooms are more popular in cheaper areas where it’s more affordable to buy a home with extra bedrooms.” 
The average size of a new home grew during the famous “McMansion” era, beginning in the 1980s, when builders went big. But they stopped growing about a decade ago; much of that has to do with rising costs as well as both energy efficiency and environmental demands from consumers.
So the average number of bedrooms per home over the past 50 years has increased, from an average of 2.5 rooms in 1970 to 2.8 rooms in 2023, but there has been no change over the past 10 years.

Looking regionally, since all real estate is local, excess space trends are highest in the Mountain West and in the South. That is simply because there is more land there, and homes are built with larger floor plans, according to the report. Urban homes have just the opposite dynamic.
“If people value having extra space, then we didn’t overbuild during the McMansion era. But if homebuyers are simply tolerating these big homes because they’re what’s available, then perhaps we did overbuild a bit over the past few decades,” McLaughlin added.
The 10 markets with the highest share of total bedrooms that could be considered excess are:

Ogden, Utah (12.2%)
Colorado Springs, Colo. (12.1%)
Salt Lake City, Utah (12%)
Memphis, Tenn. (11.8%)
Atlanta (11.6%)
Cleveland (11.3%)
Wichita, Kan. (11.3%)
Columbia, S.C. (10.8%)
Charleston, S.C. (10.7%)
Jackson, Miss. (10.7%)

The 10 markets with the lowest share of total bedrooms that could be considered excess are:

Miami (5.9%)
Sarasota, Fla. (6.4%)
New York (6.5%)
Los Angeles (6.6%)
New Haven, Conn. (6.7%)
Worcester, Mass. (6.9%)
Stockton, Calif. (6.9%)
Bakersfield, Calif. (7%)
Honolulu area (7%)
Providence, R.I. (7.1%) More

The deadly, targeted shooting of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, Brian Thompson, has unleashed a torrent of pent-up anger and resentment toward the insurance industry, renewed calls for reform and reignited a debate over health care in the U.S. 
Many patients, advocacy groups and industry experts say the industry and U.S. health-care system are flawed or broken entirely, often disadvantaging Americans who simply need care.
But there is less consensus on the root cause of the issues around insurance and how exactly to fix the industry. 

A person holds a sign while standing on the roadside near the McDonald’s restaurant where a suspect in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, identified as Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested, in Altoona, Pennsylvania, U.S. December 9, 2024. 
Matthew Hatcher | Reuters

The deadly, targeted shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has unleashed a torrent of pent-up anger and resentment toward the insurance industry, renewed calls for reform and reignited a debate over health care in the U.S. 
Almost no expert, provider, or patient would say U.S. health care works as it should for patients. The problem is deciding how to improve it.

Luigi Mangione, 26, is accused of fatally shooting Thompson outside the Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan on Dec. 4, as the CEO headed to the annual investor day of his company’s parent, UnitedHealth Group. Investigators have said Mangione was a critic of UnitedHealthcare and the broader health-care industry.
The killing sparked a flood of social media posts voicing negative experiences with insurers, morbid praise and justification for Thompson’s killing and threats toward other insurance executives – igniting frustrations that have bubbled for years. Those reactions drew rebukes from others who condemned them as inhumane after Thompson’s death. 
U.S. patients spend far more on health care than anywhere else in the world, yet have the lowest life expectancy among large, wealthy countries, according to the Commonwealth Fund, an independent research group. Over the past five years, U.S. spending on insurance premiums, out-of-pocket co-payments, pharmaceuticals and hospital services has also increased, government data shows.
Many patients, advocacy groups and experts say the industry and U.S. health-care system are flawed or broken entirely, often burdening Americans who simply need care with exorbitant costs and daunting hurdles. But there is less consensus on the root cause of the insurance issues and how exactly to fix American health care, a complicated and entrenched system for delivering services and treatments that costs the nation more than $4 trillion a year. 
Some experts acknowledged that insurers play a valuable role and must deal with a larger system where multiple stakeholders balance providing care with profit motives. Other experts also noted that insurers have had to grapple with pressures on their businesses, such as lower government reimbursement rates for private Medicare plans and higher medical costs among enrollees in those programs. UnitedHealthcare in particular is also grappling with the fallout from a massive ransomware attack in February targeting its company, Change Healthcare, which processes medical claims.

But patients and advocacy groups stressed that those companies’ decisions often come at the expense of patients. Insurers’ moves to rein in costs for services can often lead to denied or delayed claims, higher premiums and unexpected bills, which can leave patients without care and be the difference between life or death.

Patients frustrated with a flawed system

The U.S. insurance industry is dominated by private-sector companies such as UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health and Cigna, and operates as a largely for-profit enterprise — in contrast with most other wealthy countries. That means the industry’s primary goal is to generate profit by charging premiums to customers and managing claims to minimize payouts while complying with regulations and satisfying customers.
That leads insurers to weed out care that’s not medically necessary or not backed by scientific evidence, which helps increase their profit margins. But companies can also deny reasonable and necessary claims, preventing patients in genuine need of care from getting it or leaving them with hefty medical charges. 
Tactics include delaying or denying valid claims to limit payouts, increasing premiums in a way that disproportionately burdens lower-income patients and people of color, and requiring prior authorization, which makes providers obtain approval from a patient’s insurance company before administering specific treatments. Insurers increasingly rely on technology, including AI, to review claims, which can lead to inaccurate denials or improper payouts. 

A banner hanging from on overpass along the southbound lane of I-83 that says, “Deny Defend Depose Health Care 4 All.”
Lloyd Fox | Baltimore Sun | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

Roughly half of insured adults worry about affording their monthly health insurance premium, according to a March survey from KFF, a policy research organization. The survey added that large shares of adults with employee-sponsored plans and government market coverage rate their insurance as “fair” or “poor” in terms of their monthly premium and out-of-pocket costs to see a doctor. 
A separate KFF survey from 2023 showed that nearly one in five adults had claims denied in the past year. People who used more health services were more likely to have claims rejected, according to the poll. 
No one knows exactly how often private insurers deny claims, since they are generally not required to disclose that data. But UnitedHealthcare, which as the largest private health insurer in the U.S. posted more than $281 billion in revenue last year, is a frequent target for criticism over how it handles claims. 
For example, UnitedHealthcare last year settled a case brought by a severely ill student at Penn State University who claimed the company denied coverage for drugs his doctors determined were medically necessary, leaving him with a bill of more than $800,000. An investigation by ProPublica outlined the lengths UnitedHealthcare went to reject claims, including by burying medical reports. UnitedHealthcare has since settled the case.
Families of two now-deceased customers also sued UnitedHealthcare last year, alleging the company knowingly used a faulty algorithm to deny elderly patients coverage for extended care deemed necessary by their doctors. In court filings earlier this year, UnitedHealth Group said it should be dismissed from the lawsuit because the patients and their families did not finish Medicare’s appeals process for claims.
Some people aired their frustrations with the company’s practices on social media when reacting to Thompson’s death.
One Instagram user wrote in a post that “My condolences are out-of-network.” Another user commented under a CNBC Instagram post about the killing, “Sorry but with the way they be denying coverage for everyday patients.. no comment.”

The logo of UnitedHealth appears on the side of one of its office buildings in Santa Ana, California, on April 13, 2020.
Mike Blake | Reuters

Celebrating or justifying the death of anyone is “appalling,” said Caitlin Donovan, senior director of Patient Advocate Foundation, which provides case management services and financial aid to Americans with serious illnesses. But she said it is not surprising that people are frustrated with the health-care system. 
“People just want the system to be fair,” Donovan said. “They want to pay a reasonable amount and have their health care covered, and they want to be able to access what their trusted provider is prescribing them.”

What is the root cause?

Though the issues are well understood, parsing out which stakeholders are to blame is a complicated task.
Some industry experts argued it is necessary for insurers to control costs under the current health-care system. Insurers are mostly paid by employers and government agencies, which set many of the rules around the coverage they offer. 
If insurers paid out every claim they received, premiums would likely skyrocket, said Evan Saltzman, professor in the department of risk management/insurance, real estate and legal studies at Florida State University’s College of Business.
“If you want to keep premiums reasonable, you do need the insurer to police some of the claims being filed,” Saltzman said. He acknowledged insurers sometimes deny “perfectly reasonable claims” and not just unnecessary or fraudulent care. 
He said insurers can also help police bad actors in the health-care system, such as some doctors who attempt to prescribe unnecessary treatments to patients to increase profits. 
Saltzman said one of the underlying causes of insurance issues is “information asymmetry” between insurers and patients. Patients often know more about their personal health risk than their insurance company, but the insurer often knows far more about the health-care networks and coverage details, Saltzman said.
UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty similarly blamed a lack of transparency in the insurance industry in a New York Times opinion piece on Friday, his first public remarks since the shooting. He said insurers, together with employers, governments and other payers, need to better explain what is covered and how those decisions are made. 
Still, he defended the way insurers make claim decisions, saying behind them “lies a comprehensive and continually updated body of clinical evidence focused on achieving the best health outcomes and ensuring patient safety.”

But Donovan said Witty’s column “missed the mark.” While the health-care system needs more transparency, Donovan said Witty’s proposed solution “puts the onus on patients when that’s not where it should be.” 
Insurance policies are often written with technical language that is difficult to understand. Patients could become confused about what is covered, and may not realize the limitations of their coverage until they try to file a claim, she said.
Donovan believes the root issue is cost — a system built around maximizing prices and revenue, rather than helping patients. 
For example, the industry has limited competition after consolidation, and its traditional payment model reimburses providers based on each service they perform, which can lead to overtreatment and higher costs. 
Drug middlemen called pharmacy benefit managers — which negotiate drug discounts with manufacturers on behalf of insurance plans — also put pressure on other parts of the system. For example, lawmakers and drugmakers have accused PBMs of charging insurers more for drugs than they reimburse pharmacies, pocketing the difference as profit. 
Donovan acknowledged that insurers attempt to negotiate with providers to cut prices for services and products. But she said insurers are often more focused on managing costs for their business than advocating for patients. 

How health care could be reformed

Industry experts don’t expect insurance companies to make material changes to their policies in response to the killing. 
Policy changes at companies alone won’t drastically improve care for patients, according to Veer Gidwaney, the founder and CEO of Ansel Health. His private company offers simplified supplemental insurance for members diagnosed with more than 13,000 conditions
Gidwaney said there will need to be structural changes to the entire industry, which will require harder, longer-term legislative efforts. That may prove difficult with Republicans set to take control of a closely divided Congress for the next two years.
To decrease costs and barriers to access for patients, Donovan said the government could more heavily scrutinize the health-care consolidation that eats up independent providers. She also said legislators could pass more laws to protect patients from surprise ambulance bills and address shortages across the health-care system that drive up costs, such as the limited supply of certain drugs or clinicians. 
The incoming administration under President-elect Donald Trump could also push for more transparency in the health-care industry, according to Stephen Parente, an insurance professor at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. Parente served in two different health policy roles in the first Trump administration and has worked directly with UnitedHealthcare’s Thompson. 
He noted, for example, that the Trump administration issued a rule that required most employer-based health plans and issuers of group or individual plans to disclose price and cost-sharing information for covered items and services, which went into effect in July 2022. 
“There might be fresh pressure for denial rates to be put out. I’d like for insurers and Medicare to be transparent about their denial rates,” Parente said. 
Until any significant changes occur, patients can “really try to take control of their own health,” said Michael Hinton, a patient who was diagnosed with a chronic digestive disease called gastroparesis more than 14 years ago. He said that could look like taking notes and asking questions during appointments, tracking insurance payments, learning more about the condition they suffer from and turning to third parties for help.
In Hinton’s case, the Patient Advocate Foundation helped him navigate coverage for a critical surgery that was denied twice by his insurance. 
“I find it so disturbing and sad. It’s just unbelievable,” Hinton said, referring to the fatal shooting earlier this month. “There are other methods of change — and that could look like trying to be your own advocate.”  More