NCAA Tournament payout projections show lucrative result for SEC, others in March
The real winners of the NCAA Tournament has been the fans, with upsets galore and a Final Four nobody expected to come to fruition.
Still, the payouts for even the conferences who didn’t make it to Houston remained massive for March Madness. Eben Novy-Williams and Lev Akabas of Sportico calculated roughly how much each conference will bring in from the 2023 NCAA Tournament, and some usual suspects cleaned up in a big way.
Check out the chart below, shared to Twitter by Novy-Williams, explaining that the SEC and Big 12 lead the way with the projected conference payouts from March Madness.
“An SEC team won’t win the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, but the league will eventually take home roughly $34 million from its March Madness success, more than any other conference,” reported Sportico. “That’s because of the complicated way the NCAA distributes money during the tournament.
“Instead of paying schools for their success, the governing body distributes money directly to the conferences themselves. The amount of money each conference receives is determined by the number of tournament games each team plays prior to the final.”
Due to the NCAA’s distribution strategy, the SEC — who sent eight teams to the 2023 NCAA Tournament, who all lost before the Elite Eight — made out like bandits with a nice little $34 million payout.
“The SEC sent eight teams to this year’s tournament, more than anyone except the Big Ten, and those teams will end the tournament having played 17 games. Each game played will be worth roughly $2 million, according to Sportico’s calculations, paid out in annual installments through 2029, bringing the SEC’s haul to roughly $34 million,” added Sportico. “The Big 12 is next with 16 games played for $32 million, followed by the Big East with 15 games for $30 million.”
The Big 12 made it farther in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, and the Big East sent a team to the Final Four in the Connecticut Huskies. Still, the SEC led the way, something Sportico highlighted as “historic” for many reasons.
“The SEC’s haul is historic for multiple reasons,” read the article. “It’s been at least two decades since the SEC led all conferences in tournament earnings.
“It’s also just the second time in the past 20 years that the highest-earning conference failed to advance a single team out of the Sweet Sixteen—Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama all lost one win short of the Elite Eight.”
More on NCAA Tournament payment structure
Moreover, Sportico explained that the way the NCAA calculates their payouts is through awarding units for games played before the championship game, which works out to about $2 million per, according to their projections.
“The @NCAA’s unit payment structure is complex, but @Sportico calculated the following based off the NCAA’s distribution guidance,” tweeted Novy-Williams. “For every game a conference plays in this tournament (outside the final) the league will get one of each of these payments. Total of $2 million.”
As the graph shows, the payment is spread over six years, from 2024 to 2029 based on units awards during the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
It’s no surprise, but the NCAA Tournament is as lucrative as it is exciting to watch. Upsets equal the difference not just between shattered dreams and realized hopes, but millions of dollars, as well.
The SEC and Big 12 may be sitting at home right now, but conference officials will be counting their coin over the Final Four. Still, it has to sting to miss out on the trophies, memories and meaning that the Final Four brings, all of which some tremendous Cinderella stories will receive next weekend.