The SEC broke records this year, sending 14 teams to the men’s NCAA tournament and winning 24 games. For their efforts? A cool $70 million check.
Each year, the NCAA tournament offers 132 units, each worth about $2 million. Units are allocated to each conference with teams in the field, with additional units for at-large bids totaling about $264 million in payouts. Teams also earn a unit for each game they play until the national championship.
SEC Breaks Record With $70M in March Madness Warnings
With 14 berths, the SEC earned itself a cool $28 million, and that’s before any games were played. Here’s how the units broke down.
After Texas’ First Four loss, the SEC had 13 teams in the first round of the tournament: No. 1 seeds Auburn and Florida, No. 2 seeds Alabama and Tennessee, No. 3 seed Kentucky, No. 4 seed Texas A&M, No. 6 seeds Missouri and Ole Miss, No. 8 seed Mississippi State, No. 9 seeds Georgia and Oklahoma and No. 10 seeds Arkansas and Vanderbilt.
Of those 13, Auburn, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, and Arkansas won their first-round games, awarding the conference an extra eight units and about $16 million.
With another seven teams, Auburn, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ole Miss and Arkansas all making the Sweet 16, the SEC, now racking up 15 wins, earned itself another seven units and about $14 million.
Three SEC teams fell in the Sweet 16, leaving Auburn, Florida, Alabama, and Tennessee and earning another four units—about $8 million.
Auburn and Florida advanced out of the Elite Eight and into the Final Four, earning the conference its last two units and another $4 million.
KEEP READING: Future of SEC Basketball: Are Auburn, Alabama Here To Stay?
With Florida winning it all, their first championship since 2007, the SEC also broke its own streak, making its first national championship appearance since 2014 and winning its first title since 2012, both courtesy of John Calipari’s Kentucky teams.
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