Whether it's March Madness or any other postseason tournament across collegiate and professional sports, the money doesn't lie. And when it comes to the NCAA Tournament, it's way too costly to miss out on the prize pool — especially now that more money is on the table for teams that reach the Final Four and the national championship game, a new wrinkle this year.
Reaching the NCAA Tournament can capture the imagination of a fan base or even, sometimes, an entire country. But it makes those shining moments even better when the money that can be made from a tournament run start rolling in. If you follow the mone, you'll see just how much can be made during March Madness.
How do March Madness payouts actually work?
It pays, literally, to make it to March Madness each year. Between the women’s and the men’s NCAA Tournament, the conferences represented each receive a portion of the nearly $250 million in total money that the NCAA gives out, per Front Office Sports. The NCAA uses a system called the “unit”, which pays conferences based on how they do in the tournament in a given season. That's why it’s important to have as many teams from your conference as possible make it to the Big Dance, to increase your chances of getting the highest payout.
Here's how it works: Each conference tournament champion or automatic qualifier receives a payment, and after that, every at-large bid per conference receives a “unit” (or portion) of the leftover pool money. The schools then earn additional units for advancing further into the tournament. New in 2026, schools will receive a unit for reaching the national championship game and then another unit for winning a championship.
How much money does each NCAA Tournament win earn?
Because the men’s and women’s tournaments generate different revenue numbers, they have different values for the monetary units that conferences can earn. The men’s tournament will have a prize pool of $220 million to divvy up, while the women’s share is around $20 million.
- Payments are spread out over a six-year period
- In 2025, one unit was approximately $2 million
- 135 total units (including First Four, Final Four and national championship game)
Payments begin the year after the tournament appearance is made. At a cost of $2 million per unit per team, last year each team made about $350,000 per year over a six-year span. That’s why getting to the NCAA Tournament is a big deal, especially for these small schools: They bring in a lot of money to conferences that are often operating on shoestring budgets.
In the women's NCAA Tournament, it's a similar process just on a smaller scale. In 2025, the women's tournament introduced the units system after getting a massive new media rights deal. The big difference is that the money is distributed on a three-year schedule, rather than six like the men's. Though the pool is smaller, the percentage of revenue that goes to the schools is the same.
NCAA Tournament teams don’t actually get paid directly
Much like the College Football Playoff, the NCAA doesn’t pay the schools directly, instead paying the money to each conference. Then it’s up to the conferences to distribute that money at their discretion. Most conferences do so evenly across each partner school, even the ones that didn’t make the NCAA Tournament.
The ACC adopted a model in which only the schools that reached the NCAA Tournament receive the funds rather than the entire conference. They first did it for the CFP, because their TV deals are so far behind the SEC and Big Ten and bigger schools in the conference (like Florida State and Clemson) wanted more of the money they felt they'd earned.
Either way, it’s worth getting as many teams to the conference as you can, because most teams in the conference benefit from even just one team getting in.
Why March Madness can be worth tens of millions to a conference
Getting into the NCAA Tournament isn’t just about trying to be the team that pulls off the big upset or that goes on a tournament run. While that’s the stuff that creates the mythos around March Madness, the financial side is just as impactful as the glory of winning. For the mid-major schools, reaching the Big Dance alone can pump serious money back into athletic departments.
With the unit system now extended beyond the Elite Eight, teams like Butler or Loyola-Chicago could have greatly benefitted for the next six years based on one tournament run. And the entire conference benefits, not just the school.
Being a team that pulls off the crazy upset is what makes March Madness what it is. But the money that comes from winning the conference tournament and getting the automatic qualifier has a lasting impact on the team, program and the conference.