The 31-0 Miami (Ohio) men’s basketball team is just three wins away from a Mid-American Conference Tournament championship and an automatic NCAA Tournament berth. But would it be better for the conference if the RedHawks lose?
The NCAA distributes hundreds of millions of dollars each year to conferences based on their members’ success in the men’s basketball tournament—a complex system that Sportico broke down in detail here. Conferences essentially earn one “unit” for each game their teams play in the tournament (including First Four contests) before the final. Each unit earned in this year’s tournament will be worth roughly $2 million, paid out in annual increments over the next six years.
Because conference champions automatically qualify for March Madness, each conference has a minimum number of base units accumulated over the previous six years, plus any additional units earned from multiple schools getting bids or tournament games won. This year, for instance, the MAC has five units from automatic bids in the last five tournaments (there was no tournament in 2020 due to COVID), and one additional unit from Ohio’s upset win over Virginia in 2021.
Every conference distributes the money differently to its member institutions—some divide it equally, while others give more to schools that make the tournament. The MAC uses a hybrid approach: Payouts from base units are split evenly among the conference’s 13 schools, while money earned via additional units is distributed based on team success. Factors measuring success include the regular season championship, NCAA Tournament bids, NCAA Tournament wins, NIT bids, Quadrant 1 wins and finishing the season in the top 50 or top 100 in NET rating.
Due to Miami’s undefeated regular season, the expert consensus is that it would get an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament even if it loses in the MAC Tournament. That is not a given, since Miami played a weak schedule that didn’t include a single power conference opponent, so a quarterfinal loss to 16-15 UMass could change the calculus. But a Miami defeat in the semifinal or final this week would nearly guarantee the conference two March Madness bids for the first time since 1999.
“I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it that way,” MAC commissioner Dr. Jon Steinbrecher said. “I think all of us are anxious to accumulate units when you get to March. Now, do we do that by having multiple teams? Do we do that by having a single team that wins several rounds? Or is it multiple teams that go several rounds?”
Statistician Ken Pomeroy’s model (KenPom) gives the Miami RedHawks only a 25% chance to win the MAC Tournament, much less than second-seeded Akron at 49%. The Zips have won 16 consecutive conference games since losing to Miami on Jan. 3, and they rank No. 60 in Pomeroy’s national rankings, ahead of the RedHawks at No. 91.
March Madness seeding, though, is a factor for potential units in addition to qualification. CBS Sports currently pegs Miami as a No. 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but that could increase or decrease based on the team’s MAC tourney performance. Of course, a higher seed will give the RedHawks a better chance to win a first-round game in the Big Dance. Counterintuitively, though, No. 11 seeds often win more total NCAA Tournament games than No. 8 or No. 9 seeds because they avoid facing a No. 1 seed in the second round.
For each additional unit, an extra $300,000 to $400,000 annually for the next six years would be allocated to the MAC’s most successful basketball programs under the current distribution policy. In 2023-24, the most recent season with data available in Sportico’s college finances database, MAC athletic departments generated the least revenue of any FBS conference by a significant margin. Buffalo was the league-leader with $42.2 million in total revenues, including institutional and government support, while Northern Illinois brought up the rear with just $29.2 million. The conference’s men’s basketball teams averaged only $221,000 in ticket sales and $134,000 in donations.
“I don’t think there’s ever been a time when any of our schools would say they have enough revenue,” Steinbrecher said. “So they’re all looking for additional dollars that they can either use to offset current expenses or plow back into the program.”
Regardless of what happens on the court this week, Miami’s success and the national attention it has received is already a win for the MAC. A week before the first round of the conference tournament, the event already surpassed its ticket sales from 2025.
“It’s helping shine a light on some pretty significant competition. [The MAC has] a bunch of folks who can play, and play at a high level,” Steinbrecher said. “All conferences are challenging. I mean, there’s a reason why you don’t see a bunch of schools year in and year out going through their conference season undefeated.”