The Dance = Cha-Ching! (v2012)

[Benny B]

Recapping from last year's thread:
I) Conferences are paid a tournament "share" for each "unit" its member schools earned over the past six years.
II) "Units" are the number of tournament (NCAA and NIT) games in which a member school appears (regardless of W/L result).
III) In 2012, the value of a NCAA tournament share is approx. $242,000; NIT shares are $15,000.  (NCAA share values increase every year, NIT are mostly static).

In other words:
A) How far you go in the 2012 tournament affects your 2012-2017 payouts.
B) How much you're paid out in 2012 depends on far you went in the 2007-2012 tournaments.

Noteworthy:
1) Marquette's Sweet 16 appearances in 2011 & 2012 will earn the Big East nearly $9M over the next six years.
2) The Big East will be paid $28.7M in 2012 based on all members' 2007-2012 results.
3) The Big East will collect $107M (over the next six years) just from members' 2012 tourney results.
4) Marquette's "contribution" to the $28.7M in 2012 is $2.9M (~10% of total).
5) The Big East is still due $11.6M solely for Marquette's tournament appearances through 2012.  Only UCONN ($12.9M), Louisville ($14.3M), and Syracuse ($13.4M) are ahead of MU.
6) A school who can win one tourney game every year (on average) is worth $3M annually to their conference.

When Syracuse & Pitt leave, MU will be the third largest money contributor to the Big East since 2005 (behind UCONN and Louisville).

Questions:
How is the money divided in the Big East?  I don't know.  Some conferences, the CAA for example, give 60% to the participating school and 40% is divided equally amongst all schools.  My guess is something similar is done in the Big East, but I'm not sure of the percentage split.

What happens to WVU's shares next year (and Pitt's & Syracuse's the year after)?  It stays with the Big East.  When MU left C-USA, it also left behind 15 shares (5 units from 2003 x 3 remaining years). 

How will those shares be divided?  I don't know... it's up to the Big East and whatever agreements are in place amongst the members.  If I had to guess, I would say that the percentage of a school's remaining shares that is divided amongst the member schools will simply be divided amongst the remaining schools, meaning a) WVU will forfeit most, if not all, of its unpaid shares, and b) SMU won't receive any allocation of WVU's remaining shares.

[Henry Sugar]

great post - thanks for sharing