ACC to make at least $30 million from 2016 NCAA Tournament

The 2016 NCAA Tournament will mean millions of dollars for the ACC thanks to their success this year.

For the first time in the history of the Men’s NCAA Tournament, six teams from the same conference will be playing in the Sweet 16 round, just two wins away from making it to Houston and being in the Final Four.

As it turns out, those schools – Duke, North Carolina, Virginia, Miami, Syracuse and Notre Dame – are making the conference a whole lot of money in the process. Thanks to making it this far, the ACC will get at least $30 million over the next six seasons as a payout for this year’s achievement.

ESPN provided an explanation of how the money breaks down and how the conference isn’t done making money this year:

"Each game played in this year’s tournament is worth $265,791. That money is paid out in each of the next six years (2017-22), with the number for each game, or unit, growing each year of the payout.That means the ACC has 13 units from 13 games played and is guaranteed another six units from Sweet 16 games. Nineteen units will add up to more than $30.3 million over the six-year payout."

Basically, if all six teams left get knocked out in the next round, the league still gets paid. It isn’t that far fetched of a reality that all six teams could make it into the Elite Eight round, which would add over another $7 million to that number.

If the ACC is fortunate enough to have four teams make it to Houston (which in turn would mean having both teams in the national championship game), the conference would bring in a total of $49.14 million over the next six years for three weeks of work in 2016.

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