How Much Money is the NCAA Making Off of the NCAA Tournament?
By Blake Lovell
Earlier this morning, Deadspin discussed documents that were available to the public that maybe shouldn’t have been. That document was the NCAA’s financial statements for the last several years.
However, the NCAA later made it clear that these were public records, and were available for everyone to view.
They’re still interesting nonetheless, as CBSSports.com’s Matt Norlander points out in relation to how much money the NCAA is making off of the NCAA tournament.
As noted, there’s an increase year after year in the amount of money that they bring in off of the gold mine that is March Madness.
So while the tournament expanding to 68 teams this past year might have irked certain hardcore college hoops fans, there’s no reason for the NCAA to even think about cutting the number ever again.
After making a whopping $657 million off of the 2011 tournament, an increase of $40 million from the previous edition, expansion will continue to be in the discussion down the line.
Financially, tournament expansion had no negative impact, which we all knew would be the case. And remember, it’s all about the money.
Just ask those involved in the conference expansion race right now.
But while you probably won’t sit down and read all the reports in their entirety, there are some fascinating numbers in here that give you an idea as to what type of gains are made by the NCAA.
It’s certainly worth a look, and you can check out the 2008 report below.