Basketball Bonanza. Here’s a look at 2023 March Madness Stats and Facts

Every Spring, the nation becomes obsessed with the NCAA basketball tournament. March Madness begins! Even the casual basketball fan fills out a bracket. For example, 80 million brackets are completed each year.

This 68-team basketball bonanza has been known to crown a Cinderella or two, produce at least one shining moment a year, and turn millions of Americans into gamblers. As a result, over $10 billion is estimated to be wagered on the 2023 NCAA Tournament with 52% placing a bet online. The average bet is $60.

It may be more economical to watch from your couch as the starting retail price for a ticket to one of the 2023 Final Four games costs around $175. During this time, around 19 percent more beer is sold to keep up with cheering fans.

There’s the potential for some workplace conflict, since distracted employees cost businesses about $16.3 billion per year. Moreover, the average worker spends about 6 hours watching hoops while on the job. 37% of Americans call in sick during the tournament to watch the play. 78% of people say that March Madness boosts workplace morale.

WalletHub analyzed March Madness from tip to title with a special emphasis on finance. Let’s take a look at March Madness by the numbers.

Top 10 March Madness Stats & Facts:

1. $1.14 Billion: Annual revenue for the NCAA in 2022, more than double the amount earned in 2020 and topping pre-pandemic revenues ($1.12B).
2. $10.2 Million: Salary for college basketball’s highest paid coach, Kansas’s Bill Self (vs. $710.7K combined for University of Kansas’s chancellor and the state’s governor).
3. 47X: Difference between the average NBA rookie’s salary ($3.4M) and a D1 men’s athlete basketball scholarship for a year ($71.4K).
4. $16.3 Billion: Corporate losses due to unproductive workers during March Madness.
5. $300 Million+: Projected economic impact on Houston from March Madness 2023.
6. $334.2 Million: Estimated value of the University of Kentucky basketball program— highest among all schools (generating a revenue of $22M).
7. $170.3 Million: NCAA’s basketball fund’s 2023 distribution to D1 schools.
8. $0: Amount of money the NCAA pays the players participating in the tournament.
9. 72,220: NRG Stadium’s capacity for Final Four 2023 (full capacity).
10. 12+: College basketball programs have been involved in a corruption case involving payments to players since 2017.
11. 2.5k volunteers are needed to pull off the tournament.
12. 14 cities will host the NCAA basketball tournament.
13. $2.99 Million is the annual base salary for NCAA President Mark Emmert.
14. 407 points is the tournament record by Duke’s Christain Laettner in 23 career games.

Odds of filling out a bracket perfectly are 1 in 9,200, 000,000,000,000,000. That 1 in 9.2 quintillion. Subsequently, you’re 2 times more likely to win the lottery back-to-back. In conclusion, 2008 was the only time all number 1 seeds made it to the final four. Good luck.