Money Machine: Guess Who Gets the Most …

[IdaGriz01]

This AP article linked on ESPN provides the most information I’ve seen about how the NCAA March Madness money machine works. It’s fairly long, but well worth reading if you have the time.
http://my.earthlink.net/channel/news/article/top?guid=20190326/349a0041-8f0c-4cf5-b768-4d598e1eb426

A few key quotes:

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Every year, millions of dollars are distributed to 32 Division I conferences by the NCAA based on what teams get into the tournament and how far they advance. Last year it was $216 million.
The hoops showcase is the centerpiece of the NCAA's revenue. And in recent years, the portion of those funds going to the five most powerful conferences in college sports has increased, according to an AP analysis of more than $3 billion in payments distributed from 1997-2018.
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From 1997-2018, the Big Ten Conference has been paid the most at $340 million, while the Southwest Athletic Conference has earned $25 million, nearly the minimum it can earn given that all leagues make money from their teams that qualify automatically.
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How it works: Each distribution year is assigned a value for a single unit, which is then applied to bids and most wins earned by conferences over the previous six tournaments. The $216 million doled out last year amounted to $273,500 per unit for tournament results from 2012-2017.
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Wichita State ... and Creighton ... have both left the Missouri Valley, ripple effects from Power Five expansion. Elgin provided AP with MVC financial projections that show annual unit revenue falling from nearly $7.2 million in 2019 to $2.6 million in 2025.
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As I said, there's a lot more information in the entire article. Here's a few thoughts:
Between 2000 and when they left the Missouri Valley, Creighton and Wichita State had gone to the Big Dance 15 times. In fact, without those two teams, the MVC was strictly a one-bid conference -- as it is now. It's easy to see why the West Coast Conference was willing to do just about anything to keep Gonzaga from leaving.
Spread over twenty years, the Big Ten money comes to about $17 million per year, with the SWAC getting a bit over a million. That's the most extreme difference, but it's pretty much how it's going between the power conferences versus everybody else. (Just to keep it in perspective ... that $17 mill is still no where near the combined Big Ten football bowl revenue, which top $50 million last year.)