Saint Peter’s made $71M in Elite Eight run last year, Loyola Chicago built new $18.5m facility after 2018 Cinderella story and George Mason’s admissions shot up 350% after 2006 success… March Madness by numbers
March Madness may be a huge deal to fans around America, but it is even more important to the teams themselves – who could earn tens of millions of dollars if they upset the odds and make a Cinderella run.
With the second day of the NCAA tournament upon us, plenty more outsiders will be eyeing a huge upset and the national attention they have craved – some of them for years.
In fact, you don’t have to look far back for an underdog story to try and mirror, with Saint Peter’s 2022 run a massive inspiration to some of the teams involved in this year’s competition.
Last time out, the Jersey City school became the first ever 15-seed to make it all the way through to the Elite Eight, which earned them a whopping $71million in advertising exposure for the school, according to Front Office Sports.
In the first round, they downed #2 Kentucky in overtime, before going on to beat seventh-seed Murray State in the next round. After that, there was a near-miracle 67-64 win over #3 Purdue, before the dream came to an end against North Carolina in the Elite Eight.
Loyola Chicago celebrate their win over Kansas in the fourth round of the 2018 NCAA tourney
Last year, St Peter’s Peacocks beat Purdue in the Sweet 16 round of March Madness in Philly
A few years prior, in 2018, Loyola Chicago managed to get all the way to the Final Four, sparking wild scenes of celebration on the court from the players.
Behind the scenes, though, there will likely have been a glass or two of champagne lifted too, with the March Madness run believed to have sealed them a new $18.5m facility and chartered flights to road games.
Elsewhere, there has also been a huge social media impact for lower-seeded teams when they have pulled off huge wins.
In the same year that Loyola Chicago went to the Final Four, #16 UMBC knocked out top-seed Virginia, sending Twitter into a frenzy.
It was reported that they gained 80,000 followers overnight, and were mentioned over 734,000 times on social media in the hours after their win.
In 2013, FGCU made a shock Sweet 16 run, with broadcasts showing images of their picturesque beachside university campus to viewers at home.
George Mason’s admissions shot up after they got all the way to the Final Four in 2006
Lamar Butler (left) celebrates with coach Jim Larranga during the win over North Carolina
Immediately, 100,000 people rushed to the school’s website to find out more information – presumably many, many more than they’d received in a long time.
Slightly further back, in 2006, George Mason – of Fairfax, Virginia – got to the Final Four as a No 11 seed, beating the likes of Michigan State, North Carolina, Wichita State and Connecticut before eventually losing to Florida.
So impressive was their performance that prospective students tried everything to get in the following year, with admissions inquiries up a staggering 350 percent, with out-of-state applications increasing 40 percent.
It is yet to be seen whether there will be a similar fairytale story this year, but there’s still plenty of outside seeds vying for their place in March Madness history.