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KENT, OH – JANUARY 20: Miami (OH) RedHawks guard Peter Suder (5) during the first half of the college basketball game between the Miami (OH) RedHawks and Kent State Golden Flashes on January 20, 2026, at the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center in Kent, OH. (Photo by Frank Jansky\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n
They had Wally\u2019s World, when Wally Szczerbiak shot, passed and willed his Miami (Ohio) University basketball team into the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament during the spring of 1999.<\/p>\n
Eleven years before that, defending national champion Marquette returned four starters, including the consensus player of the year. Those Warriors faced a Miami (Ohio) team that was such an underdog in the first round of March Madness that famed CBS prognosticator Jimmy \u201cThe Greek\u201d Snyder didn\u2019t bother posting odds on Miami (Ohio)\u2019s chances of capturing the 1978 national championship.<\/p>\n
Marquette didn\u2019t win.<\/p>\n
Neither did North Carolina in February 1973, when Miami (Ohio) was the first non-conference team to defeat the Tar Heels at Carmichael Auditorium since Dean Smith became their legendary coach a dozen years earlier.<\/p>\n
There were other such moments for Miami (Ohio), not only in basketball, but in football, and that\u2019s a fairy tale for another day. <\/p>\n
As for the latest basketball miracle for the real Miami (as opposed to the Florida one that wasn\u2019t established until 130 years after George Washington signed the charter for the birth of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio), well, this miracle is as striking as the difference between $8,500,000 and $2,300,000.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s $6,200,000.<\/p>\n
According to NIL-NCAA.com, that is the 72% money gap in average NIL and revenue sharing <\/a>payments per team between the the Big Ten, where 19-0 Nebraska resides, and the Mid-American Conference, home of the 20-0 Miami RedHawks.<\/p>\n Twenty and oh?<\/p>\n Wow.<\/p>\n Arizona (19-0) joins Miami (Ohio) and Nebraska as the only other undefeated team among the 365 in Division I, and since Arizona dribbles in the Big 12, let\u2019s see. NIL-NCAA.com says the average NIL and revenue sharing per team in that conference is $100,000 more than the Big Ten.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s reflect on that $100,000 figure.<\/p>\n Throughout much of Travis Steele\u2019s four seasons leading Miami (Ohio) from nowhere to 25-9 last season and then to its basketball miracle in progress, the RedHawks\u2019 NIL and revenue sharing numbers have been lower than $100,000.<\/p>\n Much lower.<\/p>\n How much lower?<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to embarrass ourselves,\u201d Steele told me laughing, relaxing before a recent practice in his office at Millett Hall, where Miami (Ohio) has won 26 consecutive home games. Only the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota has a longer streak at 27, but the Tommies are a national afterthought at 16-5.<\/p>\n In contrast, Miami (Ohio) is a national curiousity as the other Miami.<\/p>\n The RedHawks have been brutal for most of this century. Prior to their last two seasons of goodness, they had 14 straight losing seasons (if you exclude the pandemic-shortened one of 2020-21), and during the 27 years since Wally\u2019s World, they\u2019ve managed only seven winning seasons beyond the COVID-19 one.<\/p>\n CLEVELAND, OH – MARCH 14: Miami (OH) Redhawks guard Peter Suder (5) and Miami (OH) Redhawks forward Eian Elmer (0) celebrate during the second half of the MAC Men’s Basketball Tournament Semifinal game between the Miami (OH) Redhawks and Kent State Golden Flashes on March 14, 2025, at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, OH. (Photo by Frank Jansky\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n Now there is this: Since six players average double-digit points per game, the RedHawks score like crazy with old-fashioned ball movement for easy layups combined with new-fangled bombs from the other side of the farthest black hole.<\/p>\n After Miami (Ohio) won the second of its consecutive overtime games with a 107-101 victory at Kent State earlier this week, it was the RedHawks\u2019 20th straight time scoring at least 75 points. Over the last 40 years, they\u2019re just the fourth team to accomplish such a thing. <\/p>\n They\u2019re doing all this with \u201cstudent-athletes\u201d who mostly get rewarded by making good grades in classes during an era when Brigham Young\u2019s AJ Dybantsa\u2019s NIL valuation by On3.com is $4.4 million<\/a>. That\u2019s almost a quarter of Miami (Ohio)\u2019s budget in recent years<\/a> for men\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we have to spend is not much,” Steele said, and then the 44-year-old native of Danville, Indiana remembered his college days just 20 miles to the east at Butler University in Indianapolis. Back then, during the early 2000s, the Bulldogs were a mid-major program in the Horizon League, but they evolved into such a consistent basketball force that they now play in the Big East.<\/p>\n Xavier is Butler in so many ways. <\/p>\n Both schools are in the Big East, and like Butler, the Musketeers were a high mid-major basketball program after they went from independent status to the Midwestern Collegiate Conference from 1979 to 1995, and then to the Atlantic 10 from 1995 to 2013, and then to the Big East.<\/p>\n Before Miami (Ohio), Steele spent 13 years coaching at Xavier, and he was its head guy for his last four seasons. He couldn\u2019t move the NCAA-tournament-minded Musketeers beyond NIT berths, and with former Xavier head coach Sean Miller available again in the spring of 2022 after his seven trips in 12 years at Arizona to the Big Dance (including four Elite Eight finishes), Steele was fired on March 9, 2022.<\/p>\n Miami (Ohio) snatched him up 22 days later. Which was a splendid thing for the RedHawks, members of the MAC since 1947. <\/p>\n Which makes you wonder: Could Miami (Ohio) become another Butler and Xavier by joining a bigger conference sooner rather than later?<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of upside here. That\u2019s why I took the job here,\u201d said Steele, with a smile always moments away. \u201cWhen you think Miami, just the brand itself is large. I knew it was big, but it\u2019s bigger than I expected. When you walk around this campus, it\u2019s just unbelievable. From an athletic department standpoint, we are on the brink of really growing into something special. It\u2019s an elite school, and just overall, we\u2019ve got things that other shools just don\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA – JANUARY 10: Head coach Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams talks with Matthew Stafford #9 during the second quarter of an NFL wild card playoff game against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium on January 10, 2026 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Getty Images<\/p>\n I know. I graduated from Miami (Ohio) in 1978, and I was a visiting professor of journalism on campus for seven years into the 2020s.<\/p>\n Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Frost said Miami (Ohio) possesses \u201cthe most beautiful campus that ever there was.\u201d It consistently ranks among the top 15 public universities for producing CEOs of Fortune 500<\/a> companies. Its graduates include everybody from the inventor of Gumby (Art Clokey) to former National Lampoon editor and humorist P.J. O\u2019Rourke to double Super Bowl-winning quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to Ginger (Tina Louise) of Gilligan\u2019s Island to President Benjamin Harrison.<\/p>\n Then there is Miami Ohio\u2019s Cradle of Coaches<\/a>. <\/p>\n The list is massive. It includes Sean McVay, trying to reach his third Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams during this NFL postseason, and he is seeking his second Lombardi Trophy. There also is John Harbaugh, a future Pro Football Hall of Famer who just signed a $100 million contract<\/a> with the New York Giants after 18 years with the Baltimore Ravens that included a world championship.<\/p>\n