Coming down with March Madness before the Big Dance may sound like an excuse to skip prom, but it actually describes our nationwide obsession with the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. This 68-team basketball bonanza has been known to crown a Cinderella or two, produce at least one shining moment a year, and turn millions of Americans into illegal gamblers. It’s that good.
It’s also a big business both on and off the court, making millionaires out of coaches, conference commissioners and NCAA executives but very few players. Tournament time takes a toll on fans’ wallets, too, and not just in terms of the millions we lose in bracket pools each year. The starting retail price for a ticket to one of the 2023 Final Four games costs around $175, for one thing. Around 19 percent more beer is sold to keep up with cheering fans, too. Plus, there’s the potential for some workplace conflict, since distracted employees cost businesses about $16.3 billion per year.
In other words, there’s a lot more to this tournament than basketball. And since money plays at least as much of a role as love of the game, WalletHub analyzed March Madness from tip to title with a special emphasis on finance. You can check out all the interesting NCAA tournament stats and facts that we found in the infographic below. We also hosted a Q&A with a panel of sports business experts on topics ranging from college basketball’s economics to which team will cut down the nets in Houston. Enjoy the show!
Top 10 March Madness Stats & Facts:
- $1.14 Billion: Annual revenue for the NCAA in 2022, more than double the amount earned in 2020 and topping pre-pandemic revenues ($1.12B).
- $10.2 Million: Salary for college basketball’s highest paid coach, Kansas’s Bill Self (vs. $710.7K combined for University of Kansas’s chancellor and the state’s governor).
- 47X: Difference between the average NBA rookie’s salary ($3.4M) and a D1 men’s athlete basketball scholarship for a year ($71.4K).
- $16.3 Billion: Corporate losses due to unproductive workers during March Madness.
- $300 Million+: Projected economic impact on Houston from March Madness 2023.
- $334.2 Million: Estimated value of the University of Kentucky basketball program— highest among all schools (generating a revenue of $22M).
- $170.3 Million: NCAA’s basketball fund’s 2023 distribution to D1 schools.
- $0: Amount of money the NCAA pays the players participating in the tournament.
- 72,220: NRG Stadium’s capacity for Final Four 2023 (full capacity).
- 12+: College basketball programs have been involved in a corruption case involving payments to players since 2017.
Ask the Experts: March Madness Musings
March Madness is one of the most entertaining guessing games on the calendar, but we wanted to add some more-educated insights to the prognostication mix. We posed the following questions to a panel of sports business experts. You can check out their bios and responses below.
- Who are your Final Four picks?
- In your opinion, is hosting March Madness 2023 an opportunity or a challenge?
- How do you characterize the NCAA tournament’s economic impact on its host cities?
- Where do you stand on the issue of paying college athletes?
- What are the biggest issues facing the NCAA today?
Ask the Experts
Professor of Management, Director of Sport Management, Jack Welch College of Business & Technology – Sacred Heart University
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Associate Professor, Sports Management, Lynn University
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Ph.D. – Assistant Professor of Sport Management, Nido R. Qubein School of Communication – High Point University
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Professor, Journalism & Creative Media, The College of Communication and Information Sciences – University of Alabama
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Full Professor and Chair of the Administration & Law Department – University of West Florida
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Ph.D. – Professor, Center for Sport Leadership and Director of Research & Distance Learning, School of Business – Virginia Commonwealth University
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