How Does NCAA Tournament Money Work?

by **Ace Dad** » March 8th, 2012, 11:15 pm

" Creighton and Wichita State are said to be locks for the NCAA tournament, giving the Valley at least two teams for the first time since 2007. Each game played in the tournament is worth what’s called a unit from the league, meaning a considerable bump to SIU’s athletic department without doing anything. The most recent unit, paid out because Indiana State played in the 2011 tourna-ment as the league’s lone member, was about $195,000, Moccia said.

The value of the units will go up, according to Moccia, this year and next because of the NCAA’s new television deal with CBS, TNT and an assortment of other networks. Creighton, ranked No. 24/25 in the country and the champion of the MVC tournament, could get a fairly high seed in the tournament. The Shockers, ranked as high as No. 14 in one poll entering the tournament, are also expected to get a top-eight seed in the tournament."

Read more: http://thesouthern.com/sports/college/d ... z1oaqU3qFz"

Does this mean that Evansville got $195,000 because Indiana State played in the NCAAs?

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by **valleychamp** » March 9th, 2012, 12:21 am

Yes, that's pretty much what it means. Though, I believe that each conference can choose how they want to do it, but commonly the "units" are just pooled and evenly distributed throughout the conference members. I am not sure how the MVC does it, but in any case it sounds like 196K was the number that was paid out to each school last year according to that article.

Though the value of each "unit" changes from year to year. If I am not mistaken, the value of the unit comes from an average of a rolling six year window for each conference. Which is why it was very important that we got back to multi-bids this year, because this is the year that we stop feeding off of that 4 bid year in 2006.

by **Khan4Cats** » March 9th, 2012, 10:16 am

Each game played in the tourney by conference teams are worth X amount of money from the NCAA to the Conference. This is why it is important to get multiple bids AND have teams advance into the tourney. More games equals more money to be shared.

I believe the Valley divies up shares equally among all schools with a double portion going to the school that actually generated (made the Dance) the share and may also keep some for their own operating budget.

by **Ace Dad** » March 9th, 2012, 12:18 pm

Another reason to hope for 3 bids instead of two. Dang it. The Bluejays screwed us out of money :roll:

by **Khan4Cats** » March 9th, 2012, 1:31 pm

Ace Dad wrote:Another reason to hope for 3 bids instead of two. Dang it. The Bluejays screwed us out of money

All depends on how things play out. 3 one and done teams is less money than 2 teams that win their first round games. Of course 3 teams winning first round games is better than two teams each winning a game. Or two one and dones and one team in the Sweet Sixteen is better than 4 teams one and done. And one team going to the Final Four beats them all.... :bounce:

by **bleach** » March 10th, 2012, 9:07 am

At one time, I thought the payout got bigger as you advanced. Is it that way or not?

by **MVCfans** » March 10th, 2012, 9:12 am

bleach wrote:At one time, I thought the payout got bigger as you advanced. Is it that way or not?

I think you just accumulate "units". The aggregate total increases with each game played, but the unit value does not.

by **omahaben** » March 10th, 2012, 11:47 am

As others have said, every game played is a unit. Conferences get paid based upon a 6-year rolling average of units. Later round games are not worth more than a first round game, it just means you've earned additional units by playing in more games.