The NCAA’s moneymaker: Experts discuss March Madness, brackets and impact on college athletics

A basketball with a bracket engraved in it sits on a pile of U.S. currency.

The NCAA’s moneymaker: Experts discuss March Madness, brackets and impact on college athletics

��ýProfessors Lamar Reams and Jim Strode explain where the money goes, the NCAA’s relationship to sports gambling, the impact on athletes, the ascendance of the women’s tournament and more.

Alex Semancik | April 3, 2025

March Madness is in more than three decades this year. Millions of Americans are tuning into the tournaments, and millions more are filling out brackets. Between the Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments, there were approximately 39 million publicly available brackets submitted in 2025, according to .

Loyal college sports fans have been filling out March Madness brackets for decades, but interest has grown. Ohio University Robert H. Freeman Professor and Chair of Sports Administration Lamar Reams, Ph.D., says a combination of increased media attention and accessibility through digital bracket participation has led to greater mass appeal.

“If you were to go back several decades ago, certainly the internet was around, but at that point, many people were [still] printing brackets and sharing them with their friends and family and colleagues at work,” said Reams. “Whereas now, it's as simple as downloading one of the many apps that are available and getting all your friends and family members involved. That's made it so much easier.”

A photo of Ohio University Robert H. Freeman Professor and Chair of Sports Administration Lamar Reams, Ph.D., — Lamar Reams is the Department Chair and Robert H. Freeman Professor of Sports Administration at Ohio University’s College of Business. Reams’ research and scholarly interests focus on sport marketing, consumer behavior and combat sports.

Ohio University O’Bleness Associate Professor of Sport Management Jim Strode, Ph.D., shares Reams’ assessment and adds that the concept of the “office bracket” also makes March Madness more appealing to non-sports fans.

“You probably have seen the jokes of the people that just pick the mascot, schools with their favorite colors, or just private elite schools,” said Strode. “I know that there actually have been studies of the decline in productivity in office settings due to March Madness.”

, according to a recent study by the career coaching firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. With so many workers spending time watching basketball instead of working, it’s clear that March Madness is firmly embedded in American culture, and this is no coincidence.

“I'm of that generation where back in the day, our schoolteacher would have a TV rolled into the classroom, and March Madness would be on during the day,” explained Strode. “So, we've also been socialized to it as well.”

A photo of Ohio University O’Bleness Associate Professor of Sport Management Jim Strode, Ph.D. — Jim Strode is the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs and O’Bleness Associate Professor at Ohio University's College of Business. Strode is an expert in high school athletics, gender in sport leadership, coaching effectiveness, philanthropy and sports gambling.

Reams points out that the NCAA basketball tournaments also happen during an “open timeslot” when Americans are craving sports. That combination of timing, increased interest and accessibility essentially create a perfect storm of game viewership and thus bracket creation.

“The March time frame actually works really well for a sporting event of this magnitude because the most popular sport in America is football and the Super Bowl has just wrapped up in February,” Reams said. “That lends itself very nicely to paving the way for the end of College basketball right before the start of the Major League Baseball season.”

The ‘Caitlin Clark effect’

The NCAA began using the term in 2022. This marketing decision along with several star players has elevated the profile of women’s basketball in general which in turn has further elevated March Madness.

Star power is a huge driver of sports viewership and this was certainly the case with the ascendance of Caitlin Clark in women’s basketball. Strode says that because of her unique skill, her ability and her amazing almost half-court three-point shots, Clark’s popularity transcended the sport.

“If we look at women's college basketball and then of course, women's professional basketball, there's no doubt that we have the Caitlin Clark effect,” emphasized Strode. “People that are not sports fans at all were enamored in watching Iowa basketball [when Clark played there].”

An Ohio University Women's Basketball Player dribbles up court.

Strode says there is a false narrative out there that people haven’t watched women’s sports until recently. On the contrary, there has been strong interest in women’s basketball for decades, but the truth is women’s sports have not been broadcast as much until recently.

“We're seeing that because now we're putting it on television, people are actually—not surprisingly—choosing to watch it,” said Strode. “And often times, watching it more than the men.”

The championship game of the 2025 TIAA Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament between UCLA and USC on CBS, making it one of the highest rated sporting events so far this year.

‘Cash cow of the NCAA’

Men’s basketball is the NCAA’s second-highest grossing sport, behind football, according to Strode. Because bowl games are independent of the NCAA and it does not receive money from football, March Madness is essentially funding the operations of the NCAA. During March Madness, roughly are generated by men’s basketball alone for the NCAA, comprising nearly .

“The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament primarily has been the cash cow of the NCAA,” explained Strode. “The NCAA has full control over these tournaments. The men's and women's tournament, as well as you know, every other sport outside of Division One football.”

The NCAA generates revenue from different sources in relation to March Madness. The organization currently has a $8.8 billion multi-year media contract with CBS Sports and Turner for the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.

“You've got the gate revenue, the tickets for these events and then obviously the merchandising and the intellectual property that is associated with it,” said Strode.

An Ohio University Men's Basketball player goes up for a lay up.

But ? Much of the funding goes back to colleges and student athletes funding things like the tournaments themselves, travel, food and lodging for athletes, as well as scholarships—both sport and academic.

Reams notes that some money also flows to the various conferences. For each tournament bid that a university or program receives, the conference receives what they refer to as a unit. Those units pay a given amount of dollars, and at the end of each year, the total number of units are calculated for each conference based on the number of appearances in the tournament. The number of victories in a conference amount to additional funds.

“If you're in a conference, for example, the SEC this year, which had a record number of teams in the tournament, they'll receive naturally the most units at year's end,” said Reams. “And it's because of those units that are being paid to those conferences that institutions within those conferences who are not performing as well or who did not make the tournament still will reap the financial benefits of being a member of that conference.”

Betting on brackets

The NCAA and has long opposed it, yet The American Gaming Association that Americans will gamble on the men’s and women’s tournaments. On the surface this might seem outright hypocritical but with the increase in legalized sports betting, the NCAA has no control of regulating sports gambling and is simply reaping the residual benefits.

When it comes to sports betting Reams says the money put down on brackets and other forms of betting go to the gambling operators as well as gambling revenue boards and other gaming associations. The NCAA is not benefitting directly but likely appreciate the increased attention and viewership that gambling brings.

“That also comes on the heels of [the NCAA] needing to be very cognizant of potential match fixing or the infiltration of gambling into the locker rooms,” explained Reams. “Education needs to take place and member institutions need to provide that to their student athletes and do their best to ensure the integrity of the game.”

A hand holds money with a basketball court in the background.

Strode agrees that while the NCAA doesn’t necessarily support sports betting, they are still reaping some of the benefits gaming associations generate.

“The NCAA would not support [sports gambling] in terms of the effect it could have on student athletes, the effect of potential corruption that could be involved, so the NCAA wants to distance itself from this,” emphasized Strode. “Of course, that doesn't prevent them from pushing out their NCAA brackets and encouraging people to log into websites to be able to do it for entertainment purposes only, because even just entertainment purposes only, in their mind, it's getting more viewership, more eyes on the on the product.”

Impact on athletes

Being an athlete on the biggest stage unfortunately isn’t always fun and games. The increased exposure can be good for athletes who are able to take advantage of the NCAA’s Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) policy and monetize their brand through the vehicle of sport, but it can also put a lot of pressure on young athletes who aren’t even playing at the professional level.

“March Madness puts a tremendous amount of pressure on athletes because of the amount of exposure and because of the stakes,” said Strode. “I mean, the stakes are huge—for the institutions, for the players, for the coach, for the alumni base, for you know, anybody affiliated with the school, with the organization.”

An Ohio University Men's Basketball player takes a jumpshot.

Social media has also upped the ante, providing a direct line of communication from fan to student-athlete.

“Fans are reaching out directly to student athletes or professional athletes and they’re yelling at them or they're threatening them or they're letting them know that they personally are the reason that they won or lost a significant amount of money, and so I would imagine that yes, it certainly has the possibility to provide some additional pressures for the athletes,” said Reams.

The future of March Madness, status of Cinderella stories

‘Cinderella stories’ in March Madness refer to underdog teams that have greatly exceeded tournament expectations. Strode says that this year the Sweet 16 of the men’s tournaments didn’t really have a Cinderella team. He says that things like NIL and the transfer portal have reshuffled the deck with larger, more prominent schools acquiring and hoarding talent.

“It's not surprising to me that we don't have as many Cinderellas because all the potential Cinderellas have gone to power for conferences,” explained Strode. “Out of the Sweet 16 teams there was only one team, Purdue, who’s starting lineup started at Purdue. Duke and Michigan State both had—I want to say maybe three or four players that started at Michigan State and Duke—and then the rest of the schools were full of transfers.”

Reams has a bit of a different take on Cinderellas. He believes that the lack of Cinderellas this year is more of a fluke than anything. While Reams agrees that NIL and the transfer portal may increase the likelihood of stronger marquee top programs collecting talent with the greater resources they possess, he also says the opposite can be argued.

“Teams like Drake, for example, can be successful because they have student athletes who want to come and play at a mid-major and prove that they can compete with the topflight teams, so to speak,” emphasized Reams. “I think we’ll continue to see Cinderella teams. This is the first year, since 2008 that the four number one seeds have all made it to the final four.”