HBCU Sports
  • SECTIONS
    • Football
    • Basketball
    • Baseball
    • Softball
    • Volleyball
    • Track & Field
    • Tennis
    • Golf
    • Bowling
    • Other Sports
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Features
  • BANDS
  • VIDEOS
  • AWARDS
    • Support the HBCU Sports Awards
    • Donor Wall
  • FORUMS
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • DONATE
  • SHOP
No Result
View All Result
HBCU Sports
  • SECTIONS
    • Football
    • Basketball
    • Baseball
    • Softball
    • Volleyball
    • Track & Field
    • Tennis
    • Golf
    • Bowling
    • Other Sports
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Features
  • BANDS
  • VIDEOS
  • AWARDS
    • Support the HBCU Sports Awards
    • Donor Wall
  • FORUMS
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • DONATE
  • SHOP
No Result
View All Result
HBCU Sports
No Result
View All Result
Home Basketball

The SWAC is $300 million dollars away from winning the NCAA Tournament

Kendrick Marshall by Kendrick Marshall
March 27, 2019
1
FDU PVU e1553091949167
2k
VIEWS

How far is the SWAC behind the Big Ten in NCAA Tournament generated revenue over the last 20 years?

About $315 million.

That disparity was highlighted by The Associated Press in its analysis of March Madness payouts from 1997-2018.

The report probed where the more than $3 billion in payments distributed to conference went during that 21-year period.

From 1997-2018, the Big Ten Conference has been paid the most at $340 million, while the Southwestern Athletic Conference has earned $25 million, nearly the minimum it can earn given that all leagues make money from their teams that qualify automatically, according to the article.

Figures were not made available for the MEAC.

The gap in revenue can easily be explained twofold.

First, the Big Ten — and the other Power Five conferences — just have simply been able to get more teams into the tournament.

In the 2019 tournament, for example, the 14-team league got eight teams in the field. The SWAC, as we know, only put one team — Prairie View, which lost to Fairleigh Dickinson in the First Four.

And with more teams from a given conference in the tournament, that allows for increased opportunities to earn more units, or several million in revenue depending on how far one or multiple teams advance.

The gap between the HBCU leagues and the upper reaches of college basketball has been steadily growing even with the expansion of the tournament from 32, 64 and currently, 68 teams added to the field, which routinely introduces far more teams from Power Five conferences than mid-major leagues.

In 2007, The Mid-Majority Institute of Basketball Research drew a line across the center of Division I. It was a called the Red Line. Above it, conferences with an average school athletic budget of $20 million or more (as measured by the U.S. Department of Postsecondary Education). The Mid-Majority Institute of Basketball Research found that the eight richest leagues beat teams in the smaller conferences over 83 percent of the time.

The reality is that the rich in college basketball — with already a multimillion-dollar head start thanks to lucrative conference television deals and millions more in sponsorships and donations — are accumulating even more come March than the less fortunate can ever imagine.

Which, if the NCAA actually cared about the institutions in the tournament — at least athletically beyond the hundreds of millions of dollars it gathers in March — it could do something to stifle the widening chasm between the haves and the have nots.

The NCAA has already identified black colleges as so-called low-resource institutions and chosen to invest in assisting schools in raising academic performance, particularly as it relates to the controversial Academic Progress Rate standard that some HBCU athletic programs have struggled with.

In that vein, it might be just as beneficial for the NCAA to adopt a similar initiative for college basketball.

Maybe instead of only one automatic qualifier from the MEAC and SWAC getting a spot in the tournament, how about two if the regular season and conference tournament champions are different? That isn’t all that unusual for one-bid leagues and the difference in talent similar.

Doing so would create more financial opportunities for individual schools and the conferences they represent. Granted, it is unlikely that a historically black college will win the national championship in the near future, but at least the preverbal playing field won’t be as woefully unbalanced.

After all, the NCAA is about fairness, right?

Until then, those in HBCU circles will continue to collectively celebrate when kinfolk schools manage to earn a win in the tournament. That joy won’t all be expressed for the win itself, but understanding all the real obstacles and odds overcome to capture it.

Tags: Prairie ViewSWAC
Kendrick Marshall

Kendrick Marshall

Kendrick Marshall is an award-winning journalist and a graduate of Jackson State University.

Related Posts

SWAC women’s basketball player makes program history with professional leap

by HBCU Sports
July 9, 2025
0
SWAC women’s basketball player makes program history with professional leap

Former Bethune-Cookman women's basketball standout Kayla Clark has inked a professional women's basketball contract overseas. Clark signed to play in Spain to join DOC GardenStore Baloncesto Sevilla Femenino...

Read moreDetails

HBCU basketball team to play exhibition game in 100-year-old arena

by HBCU Sports
July 9, 2025
0
HBCU basketball team to play exhibition game in 100-year-old arena

Alabama A&M University men's basketball will play Samford in an exhibition game at the Boutwell Auditorium in Birmingham, the school announced. The two teams will play in the...

Read moreDetails

Tennessee State hockey will have a delayed start. Here’s why

by HBCU Sports
July 8, 2025
0
Tennessee State hockey announcement is example of HBCU adaptation and innovation

Tennessee State hockey will not take the ice as previously scheduled due to a combination of financial instability, insufficient fundraising, and logistical challenges, according to reports. The Tennessean...

Read moreDetails

HBCU basketball teams to meet in Hollywood at NBA All-Star Weekend

by HBCU Sports
July 8, 2025
0
HBCU basketball teams to meet in Hollywood at NBA All-Star Weekend

Hampton University and North Carolina A&T have announced that the two historic institutions will square off in an in-conference matchup at the 2026 NBA HBCU Classic. The game...

Read moreDetails

HBCU football All-American and Civil Rights advocate has died

by Chris Stevens
July 8, 2025
0
HBCU football All-American and Civil Rights advocate has died

Pettis Norman, a former all-CIAA receiver at Johnson C. Smith who went on to a long and impactful NFL career, died Monday at age 86. Norman was born...

Read moreDetails
Next Post
Prairie View, Texas Southern prepare for softball showdown

Prairie View, Texas Southern prepare for softball showdown

Comments 1

  1. Dodson says:
    6 years ago

    Can you provide information on Coach Kevin Nickelberry resigning from Howard University Basketball the other day.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe

RSS HBCU Sports Forums

  • The 23rd Thread about *rump
  • So maga what happened with Jeffrey Epstein 😂
  • Conference realignment isn't over - PAC12 coming back
  • Are the 2025 LPGA Rookies the Best Ever
  • Netflix: Straw
  • When You are the Baddest Weatherlady on the Planet (Sorry Flounder, I missed getting her feet)
  • Chiney Ogwumike
  • Ex-Cowboy tight end and civil rights activist dies
  • Roy Wood Jr. “Path to the HBCU Swingman Classic” to dig deeper
  • Wimbledon 2025

  • TERMS & CONDITIONS
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • COMMENT POLICY
  • DO NOT SELL MY PERSONAL INFORMATION
 CONTACT US

© 2025 RASHAD MEDIA - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PARTNER OF IONE DIGITAL / CASSIUS NETWORK

No Result
View All Result
  • SECTIONS
    • Football
    • Basketball
    • Baseball
    • Softball
    • Volleyball
    • Track & Field
    • Tennis
    • Golf
    • Bowling
    • Other Sports
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Features
  • BANDS
  • VIDEOS
  • AWARDS
    • Support the HBCU Sports Awards
    • Donor Wall
  • FORUMS
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • DONATE
  • SHOP

© 2025 RASHAD MEDIA - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PARTNER OF IONE DIGITAL / CASSIUS NETWORK

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

No Result
View All Result
  • SECTIONS
    • Football
    • Basketball
    • Baseball
    • Softball
    • Volleyball
    • Track & Field
    • Tennis
    • Golf
    • Bowling
    • Other Sports
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Features
  • BANDS
  • VIDEOS
  • AWARDS
    • Support the HBCU Sports Awards
    • Donor Wall
  • FORUMS
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • DONATE
  • SHOP

© 2025 RASHAD MEDIA - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PARTNER OF IONE DIGITAL / CASSIUS NETWORK

X