March Madness by the Numbers
The NCAA Tournament kicks off TONIGHT. Here’s everything you DON’T need to know to enjoy the action . . . It’s March Madness By the Numbers:
1. $16.3 Billion: Corporate losses due to unproductive workers during March Madness.
2. 37%: Percentage of Americans willing to call in sick or skip work to watch games.
3. $1.14 billion: The annual revenue of the NCAA in 2022.
4. ZERO DOLLARS: What players are paid for participating in the tournament.
5. 12+: Number of college basketball programs involved on corruption cases involving payments to players since 2017.
6. $10.2 million: Salary of Kansas’ Bill Self, college basketball’s highest paid coach. FYI, the school’s chancellor and the governor of Kentucky make a combined $710,700.
7. $334.2 Million: Estimated value of Kentucky’s basketball program, which is the highest among all schools. It generates $22 million in revenue.
8. 47x: The difference between the average NBA rookie’s salary of $3.4 million, and a Division 1 men’s basketball scholarship for a year, which is $71,400.
9. $10 billion+: Amount wagered on the 2023 tournament.
10. $4 billion+: Amount wagered ILLEGALLY.
11. 80 million: Number of Tournament brackets completed . . . more than half the 156 million ballots cast in the 2020 election.
12. One in 9.2 Quintillion: Odds of filling out a perfect ballot.
13. 19%: Increase in beer sales during March Madness. Chicken wing sales go up 23%, with fans consuming 2.3 billion wing portions. (Check out a whole lot more at WalletHub.com.)
