The league's wins in the NCAA Tournament are racking up dollars for its members.
It's nice to see the Atlantic 10 have such a strong showing in the NCAA Tournament. For fans, it vindicates the belief that UMass played in one of the nation's strongest conferences this past basketball season.
But for the administrators inside Mullins Center, each Atlantic 10 victory in the Big Dance means money in the coffers — even if UMass' season is over.
To explain that, we need to revisit the topic of NCAA Tournament "units," which is how the organization distributes the beaucoup bucks it makes from its 14-year, $11 Billion deal with CBS to broadcast the tournament.
The NCAA divvies the money in terms of what it calls "units." A school earns one unit for a bid to the Tournament. For each game it wins (until it reaches the Final Four), the school earns another unit.
The units are paid out over a six-year rolling period to the conference which the school comes from. Most leagues (including the Atlantic 10), have rules that state if a school leaves its conference, the conference keeps the units.
The value of the unit is assessed each year, but according to Forbes, the units have been growing at a steady rate of 7.86 percent per year. Since last year's payout was $258,502, a 7.86 percent increase would valuate this year's first payout at $278,820.
What starts at $278,820 this year leads to another $300,735 next year, and so and so forth, until the total six-year payout is north of $2 Million per unit.
The Atlantic 10, entering Saturday, had earned 10 units for its five third-round teams, the most in recent history (see box to the right).
With four teams (Temple, Charlotte, Butler, Xavier) set to leave the 16-team league, the slice of the revenue for the 12 remaining schools will increase. If all five A-10 teams lose in the third round (and no more units are earned), and the league stays at 12 teams, each school would earn $1,698,495 over the next six years and $232,350 next year.
If two of the five advance to the Sweet Sixteen, the total payout rises to $2,038,195 per school over six years and $278,820 next year.
If all five advance (unlikely), the total is $2,547,743 per school over six years and $348,525 next year.
Whatever happens in the next round, the A-10 is in for a nice payday.