The NCAA men’s basketball tournament may be the most beloved tradition in the evolving landscape of college sports.
Each spring, 68 teams from Division I schools get a fair shot at the national title — though fans debate just how fair. Such talk is itself a national pastime, like bracket predictions and watch parties.
For three weeks, Americans of all stripes come together to cheer on their teams or adopt some long-shot darling in a series of games often decided by teamwork and luck over sheer athleticism.
Business is still booming, but changing as it goes. Here’s the Breakdown:
8 teams and a dream in 1939
Coaches ran the first NCAA tournament at Northwestern 86 years ago, the brainchild of Ohio State skipper Harold Olsen. That came a year after the first NIT, managed by New York-area sports writers, and two years after basketball creator James Naismith launched the NAIA, focused on smaller programs. Oregon beat Olsen’s Buckeyes for the national title, and that first event operated at a loss.
$1.1 billion per year
That’s what CBS and Turner Sports will pay the NCAA for the rights to broadcast the tournament through 2032. That doesn’t account for revenue from streaming (which is how most of us watch now), attendance at 14 major venues (including an indoor football stadium) or merchandising, fueled by brands like “The Final Four.”
Girl power
Nearly 19 million people watched the women’s final in 2024, buoyed by Iowa phenom Caitlin Clark, besting the men’s game by almost four million. The NCAA has since secured a $65 million media rights deal for the women’s tournament, a tenfold increase — though it’s still just 5.9 percent of the men’s deal.
The $7 million man
The rumored name, image and likeness payout to BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, the nation’s top recruit in 2025, exceeds rookie salaries of all but the top four NBA draft picks. Packages like this could slow one-and-done departures to the pros and help even a playing field long dominated by power conferences and hoops dynasties. The Cougars have become an NIL innovator, hiring a “chief of staff” to acquire talent so coaches can focus on developing players.
3 transfers, 1 title
UConn won the 2024 tournament with two starters and one key backup acquired through the transfer portal, a personnel tool that has boomed in college football since 2018. Basketball transfers increased just 7 percent between 2021 and 2023, but more change is expected as stars chase rich new NIL deals.
Cinderella bumps
Freshman enrollment increases by 2.1 to 4.5 percent at small schools two years after they notch at least two upset victories in the men’s tournament, per a 2020 study. Conferences earn about $2 million for each qualifying program and $2 million more for each game the teams win. When Florida Atlantic reached the Final Four in 2023, cash-strapped Conference USA snagged a $10 million windfall. The NCAA will send conferences about $264 million this year.
A $1.7 billion money pit
The estimated value of work lost to March Madness accounts for game time in conference rooms and workers filling out between 60 and 100 million brackets each year, many for company-sponsored contests. A 2023 survey found that a quarter of fans would gladly skip work to watch the tourney. Side note: The odds of a perfect bracket are 1 in 9 quintillion. The best-ever correctly predicted 49 games but faltered in the Sweet 16.
This story appears in the March 2025 issue of Deseret Magazine. Learn more about how to subscribe.