Men’s basketball is the NCAA’s second-highest grossing sport, behind football. During March Madness, roughly 1 billion dollars are generated by men’s basketball for the NCAA, comprising nearly 85 percent of its annual revenue. 

But how much of the revenue generated by March Madness goes to benefit the basketball programs of the institutions participating in the athletic competition? 

Money is guaranteed in March Madness through the conferences’ unit system. 

“Those payments are determined by ‘units,’ which are earned for each game a school plays, not including the National Championship,” wrote Dennis Romboy, an editor for Utah InDepth. “Each of the 132 units up for grabs are worth about $2 million, according to Sportico. Conferences distribute the money, which is paid out over six years, to their schools.” 

For example, this year the largest two conferences, the Big 12 and the Southeastern Conference, are each allocated 8 bids, which equates to 16 million dollars for each conference. Yale is a member of the Ivy League Conference, which is given one automatic bid worth $2 million. 

In recent years, the unit system has become controversial due to the inclusion of automatic bids. Some viewers wonder whether games would be improved if teams from competitive conferences had additional bids instead of being included with automatic bids. 

If the bid system were changed, less competitive basketball conferences would receive less funding and fewer opportunities to play in March Madness. 

“We are giving away highly competitive opportunities for automatic qualifiers [from smaller leagues], and I think that pressure is going to rise as we have more competitive basketball leagues at the top end because of expansion.” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said during an ESPN interview. 

However, basketball programs also receive financial support from the NCAA.

According to the New York Times, in 2016, the NCAA extended the broadcast rights deal for the Division I men’s basketball tournament through 2032, when it announced a new agreement with CBS Sports and Turner. 

“The new deal, which will, like its predecessor, provide the N.C.A.A. with a vast majority of its annual revenue, comes at a time when many college athletes and their advocates have sought a greater share of such windfalls than the amateur status of athletes permits,” Times arts and culture reporter Marc Tracy wrote. “The N.C.A.A. and several of its member conferences have relented somewhat: The dollar amounts of full scholarships have been raised, and the N.C.A.A. recently disbursed $200 million to help colleges cope with rising costs.” 

Approximately 90 percent of the revenue is distributed to the universities. 

Apart from the NCAA’s contributions, how does an institution’s basketball team’s success in March Madness benefit the school? Though there are assumed intrinsic interests associated with athletic achievements, such as school pride, their extrinsic counterparts provide little advantage to the institution. 

Research shows that private donations only moderately increase when an institution participates in a well-known athletic competition. When a team performs poorly, that can hurt private donations or even cause recurring funds to be retracted. 

Regardless, winning during March Madness can help bolster schools’ basketball programs. More money for a program can equate to better future competitive outcomes when higher-paid coaches and new facilities are used to attract players. 

The Yale men’s basketball team will play the Auburn men’s basketball team on March 22.