Strategy Simplified S22E10: McKinsey Case Interview Example – College Football Expansion
Feb 6, 2026
Ritten, an MBA candidate with prior government experience, tackles a McKinsey-style college football expansion case. He structures costs, revenues, and risks in short clear steps. He runs the math on student fees, tickets, and stadium scenarios. He weighs a 25,000-seat build against financial and strategic tradeoffs.
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University Case Framing
- The client is a public university seeking to break even while gaining intangible benefits from football.
- They hope football will fund a new stadium and subsidize other sports over time.
Structure And Recap Before Calculations
- Structure cases into clear buckets: costs, revenues, financial metrics, and risks to evaluate viability.
- Recap key data at the start to avoid cascading calculation errors during the case.
Aggregate Small Revenues Matter
- Small line items (student fees, game guarantees, alumni gifts) can sum to material annual revenue.
- Explicitly list and compute each revenue stream to reveal true program economics.