March Madness tips off next week, bringing with it America’s unique burst of spring excitement … as well as piles of money.
Its basic structure is simple:
Teams earn their way into the bracket either by winning the automatic bid of their conference (each conference gets one) or an at-large invite extended by a selection committee.
Teams earn their seed in the field via the opinion of the same selection committee.
Each team in the field earns one “share” of revenue for their conference, which is then divided up as the conference sees fit.