- The Big 12 earned $2.8 million from eight teams in March Madness.
- The NCAA's unit system rewards conferences based on tournament performance, totaling $270M.
- Women's tournament units, introduced in 2025, offer $113,000 each, paid over three years.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Big 12 had a big payday on Selection Sunday when eight teams, including BYU, received bids to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.
The Mountain West not so much, with only Utah State making the Big Dance.
As March Madness gets underway this week, the conferences with the most teams in the field stand to make the most money thanks to a complicated "unit" system that rewards success.
The NCAA distributes a portion of its revenues to member conferences based on how their schools do in the tournament. Those payments are determined by "units," which are earned for each game a school plays, which until this year did not include the Final Four and national championship. The more a team advances the more money it brings in.
This year, the men's tournament will offer more than $270 million, per Sports Business Journal.
Each of the now 135 units up for grabs in recent years has been worth about $2 million. Conferences distribute the money, roughly $350,000 a year over six years, to their schools as they see fit.
What conferences earned the most money?
Even before taking the floor, the Big 12's eight tournament teams earned $2.8 million, which equates to $16.8 million over the six years. Same for the eight ACC teams in the bracket. The SEC with 10 teams and the Big 10 with nine teams will make $21 million and $18.9 million, respectively, for qualifying for the tournament.
Sixth-seeded BYU heads to Portland, Oregon, on Thursday to meet the winner of Tuesday night's First Four matchup between Texas and North Carolina State in the West Region.
Conferences obviously want to see as many of their schools in the tournament as possible to raise the payout they receive. For conferences outside the Power Four, that money can represent a major portion of their annual revenue. When a Cinderella team makes it through multiple rounds, the payout can provide a much-needed infusion of cash.
The Mountain West needs Utah State to be a Cinderella to make more than $350,000 ($2.4 million over six years) it gets for earning a tournament bid. A No. 9 seed in the West Region, the Aggies play No. 8 seed Villanova in San Diego on Friday.
The conference typically sends two or three teams to the Big Dance, enhancing its payout. San Diego State made it to the title game in 2023, where the Aztecs lost to UConn.
What's the payout for women's teams?
The unit system for the men's tournament has been in place since 1991. It took 34 years for the system to be applied to the women's tournament, though on a much smaller scale. Until last year, schools received no financial reward other than the NCAA covering the cost of a team's expenses to play in the tournament.
The NCAA secured a media rights deal with ESPN for the next eight women's tournaments at $65 million a year in 2025 and initiated the reward system for women's March Madness games.
For the 2025 tournament, the pool totaled $15 million, making each unit worth about $113,000. The fund increased to $20 million, representing 26% of the women's basketball media revenue deal this year. It goes to $25 million for the 2027 tournament, which is 41% of the revenue. The fully funded amount will be $25 million with a 2.9% annual growth rate, the same as all other Division 1 funds.
The unit distribution rules are the same for the women's tournament, though the money is paid out over three years rather than six. The Big Ten 10 has the most teams in the field with 12, followed by the SEC with 10, ACC with 9 and Big 12 with 8.
No schools from Utah qualified for the women's tournament.
