Curious where the money ends up from the NCAA Tournament?

If you’re wondering how all the different schools and conferences made out cash-wise from the NCAA Tournament, then you have to check out this chart:

It’s also worth noting how the money is divided. Of the $4.6 million that the Horizon League will collect,, Butler will receive $430K. First, whatever cash is received is averaged out over a 6-year rolling period. Then, the conference get to fill their “budget” or however much they expected to make from the tournament. Then, the school gets their cut, and finally the remaining money is divided up over the rest of the schools in the conference. Check out this excellent story for more info.

To begin with, Butler will take a portion of every unit they’ve earned as reward for their postseason success. For last year’s Final Four, Butler received $350,000.

After the Bulldog’s successes last season, the Horizon League changed the revenue-sharing rules to favor the conference’s highest earners, and this season Butler will receive $430,000 for their tournament successes.
After Butler receives their portion and the conference has its budget filled, the surplus is distributed evenly to the rest of the schools in the conference.

A few key items: This year, $180.5 million was distributed to each of the 31 conferences that receive an automatic bid to the tournament. That money is divided by the number of games each conference played in the tournament from 2005 through 2010, with $240,000 awarded for each game. The championship game is not included, and the big six conferences will receive 63.1 percent ($113.8M) of the total.

Also, for more of a breakdown: “Big East leads the way, taking in $26.1 million this year, based on 109 games played during the six-year period ending in 2010. Next up are the Big 12 (79 games), ACC (78), and Big Ten (77). The Pac-10 (67) and the SEC (65) round out the top six. After that group, there is a clear drop-off before the next group of conferences, beginning with the Atlantic 10 (25).”

(via SportsPage)