March Madness 2023: By the Numbers

Five big questions re: March Madness:
1) Who are the favorites in this year's tournament?
2) How many people watch the NCAA basketball tournament?
3) How much does CBS/Turner currently pay to air the NCAA March Madness tournament?
4) What share of the NCAA's revenue comes from media rights and sponsorships
5) Which schools spend the most money on basketball?

Big question #1: Who are the favorites in this year's tournament?

Quick answer: According to BetMGM, Houston, Kansas, and Alabama are the favorites on the men’s side.  FiveThirtyEight gives South Carolina an 81% chance to cut down the nets on the women's side.

Wow: Number one seeds have won 19 of the past 28 (68%) men’s titles and 22 of the past 28 (79%) women’s titles.

Big question #2: How many people watch the NCAA basketball tournament?

Average viewership for March Madness (YoY growth) according to Nielsen:
1) 2013 - 10.7M
2) 2014 - 10.5M (↓ 2%)
3) 2015 - 11.3M (↑ 8%)
4) 2016 - 9.4M (↓ 17%)
5) 2017 - 10.8M (↑ 15%)
6) 2018 - 9.7M (↓ 10%)
7) 2019 - 10.5M (↑ 8%)
8) 2020 - N/A
9) 2021 - 9.5M (↓ 10%)
10) 2022 - 10.7M (↑ 13%)

Big question #3: How much does CBS/Turner currently pay to air the NCAA March Madness tournament?

Recent media rights deals (% change) for NCAA March Madness, according to Indianapolis Business Journal:
1) 1994 - 7 years @ $1.7B → $247M/year
2) 2003 - 11 years @ $6.0B → $545M/year (↑ 121%)
3) 2010 - 14 years @ $10.8B → $771M/year (↑ 41%)
4) 2016 - 8 years @ $8.8B → $1.1B/year (↑ 43%)

Big question #4: What share of the NCAA's revenue comes from media rights and sponsorships?

Quick answer: 84%. In 2022, $940M out of $1.1B came from media rights and sponsorship.

Big question #5: Which schools spend the most money on basketball?

Quick answer: Duke leads the way on the men’s side @ $28M, and South Carolina is tops for the women @ $10M.

Interesting: The Purdue men’s team spends slightly less ($8.8M) than the overall average ($8.9M) for teams in the tournament.