Here’s What a March Madness Run Is Worth

The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the sports calendar in 2020, forcing sports leagues to cancel and delay events for safety reasons. The first major sports event ruined by 2020 was the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. In hindsight, the cancellation of one of the biggest events of the year — March Madness — gave hints of how truly mad the entire year would be.

Although professional sports leagues were able to restart competitions later in the year, the NCAA opted to not attempt a modified men’s basketball tourney. That decision caused a huge financial hit to the schools that would have participated, as the NCAA earns close to $1 billion from the tournament each year, which is roughly 75% of its overall revenue.

That’s why the return of the NCAA Tournament in 2021 is such a tremendous relief for schools. To determine what a tournament appearance will be worth this season, GOBankingRates looked at what each conference earned in 2019 and what that amount will be in 2021. Each game appearance (considered a “unit”) earned $280,300 per school in 2019 and will earn $280,951 in 2021.

Read on for a conference-by-conference look at how lucrative the NCAA tournament can be.

Last updated: March 19, 2021

• How much money conference will receive every year for next 6 years for 2019 performance: $5,886,300
• Total earnings over those 6 years: $35,317,800
• Teams in the 2019 tournament: 8
• Total units amassed in 2019 tournament: 21
• 2021 earnings over 6 years: $35,399,826

• How much money conference will receive every year for next 6 years for 2019 performance: $5,606,000
• Total earnings over those 6 years: $33,636,000
• Teams in the 2019 tournament: 7
• Total units amassed in 2019 tournament: 20
• 2021 earnings over 6 years: $33,714,120

• How much money conference will receive every year for next 6 years for 2019 performance: $5,325,700
• Total earnings over those 6 years: $31,954,200
• Teams in the 2019 tournament: 7
• Total units amassed in 2019 tournament: 19
• 2021 earnings over 6 years: $32,028,414

• How much money conference will receive every year for next 6 years for 2019 performance: $3,643,900
• Total earnings over those 6 years: $21,863,400
• Teams in the 2019 tournament: 6
• Total units amassed in 2019 tournament: 13
• 2021 earnings over 6 years: $21,914,178

• How much money conference will receive every year for next 6 years for 2019 performance: $1,962,100
• Total earnings over those 6 years: $11,772,600
• Teams in the 2019 tournament: 4
• Total units amassed in 2019 tournament: 7
• 2021 earnings over 6 years: $11,799,942

• How much money conference will receive every year for next 6 years for 2019 performance: $1,962,100
• Total earnings over those 6 years: $11,772,600
• Teams in the 2019 tournament: 4
• Total units amassed in 2019 tournament: 7
• 2021 earnings over 6 years: $11,799,942

• How much money conference will receive every year for next 6 years for 2019 performance: $1,401,500
• Total earnings over those 6 years: $8,409,000
• Teams in the 2019 tournament: 4
• Total units amassed in 2019 tournament: 5
• 2021 earnings over 6 years: $8,428,530

• How much money conference will receive every year for next 6 years for 2019 performance: $1,401,500
• Total earnings over those 6 years: $8,409,000
• Teams in the 2019 tournament: 2
• Total units amassed in 2019 tournament: 5
• 2021 earnings over 6 years: $8,428,530

• How much money conference will receive every year for next 6 years for 2019 performance: $1,121,200
• Total earnings over those 6 years: $6,727,200
• Teams in the 2019 tournament: 2
• Total units amassed in 2019 tournament: 4
• 2021 earnings over 6 years: $6,742,824

• How much money conference will receive every year for next 6 years for 2019 performance: $560,600
• Total earnings over those 6 years: $3,363,600
• Total units amassed in 2019 tournament: 2
• 2021 earnings over 6 years: $3,371,412

Conferences, with total teams in 2019 tournament:

• Atlantic 10: 2
• Atlantic Sun: 1
• Big West: 1
• Mid-American: 1
• Mountain West: 2
• Northeast: 1
• Southern: 1
• Summit: 1

• How much money conference will receive every year for next 6 years for 2019 performance: $280,300
• Total earnings over those 6 years: $1,681,800
• Total units amassed in 2019 tournament: 1
• 2021 earnings over 6 years: $1,685,706

Conferences:

• America East
• Big Sky
• Big South
• Colonial
• Conference USA
• Horizon
• Ivy
• MEAC
• Metro Atlantic
• Missouri Valley Conference
• Patriot
• Southland
• Sun Belt
• SWAC
• WAC

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George Malone contributed to the reporting for this article. 

Methodology: In order to discover what a March Madness run is worth to a university, GOBankingRates looked at USA Today’s “What’s an NCAA Tournament unit worth? Millions. Here’s how” and Washington Post’s “Fund and Games” to define the terminology and breakdown of how the NCAA distributes funds to its tournament teams. With this sourced, GOBankingRates found (1) how much money each school/university could win for its conference every year for the next 6 years from the upcoming 2021 tournament as sourced from NCAA revenue sharing and (2) the 6 year potential total of winnings for the conference. With the potential earnings of 2021 discovered, GOBankingRates used NBCSports and NCAA.com data to determine winnings from the 2019 tournament. For the 2019 tournament, GOBankingRates found; (3) how much money each school won for its conference every year for the next 6 years; (4) 6-year winnings for the conference; (5) how much money each conference will be rewarded for the next 6 years from the performance in the 2019 tournament; and (6) 6 year total winnings for each conference from the 2019 tournament. All data was collected on and up to date as of March 1, 2021.

Photo Disclaimer: Please note photos are for representational purposes only.