Basketball got the beer money. Many other sports around the NCAA are still looking for a lifeline.
Thursday’s announcement about the expansion of March Madness starting in 2027 from 68 to 76 teams each for the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments — and the $300 million in extra revenue that comes with it through opening sponsorships to beer, wine and liquor companies — offered a brief reprieve from the steady drip of headlines that underscore big-picture problems confronting college athletics in an era of tightening budgets and revenue sharing with athletes.
Examples aren’t hard to find.
A title-contending tennis program at the University of Arkansas is disbanded, while golf teams at Wichita State also get the ax as part of the purge of multiple sports programs nationwide.
The Big 12 taps into private equity for loans, while the Duke men’s basketball program cuts a streaming deal with Amazon Prime Video expected to bring millions more to the Blue Devils.