I don’t see how it’s feasible to create a viable alternative with just those two conferences teams. You leave way too many quality basketball programs off the table to put together something rivaling the excitement of the current product.
What the eff does that have to do with making the big 10 and SEC more money?
Guys, they don’t give a eff if they ruin everything you love as long as it makes them more money.
The two conferences putting on a tournament only including their teams wouldn’t make more money for them IMO. It would be a vastly inferior product. The P6 teams minus the SEC and big 10 would make for a larger draw.
Dax, what did the SEC and big 10 get from the NCAA tourney last year?
Pete, most of the money from the NCAA tournament comes from the actual physical inventory of games. You're not getting that inventory from two conferences putting on their own tournament. I'm unsure why you think they would make more money than they would with their conference tournaments that they already put on.
As far as what they currently make, that varies each year. The payouts are done by units. By virtue of having more teams and being in power conferences, they get more units than almost every other conference. The more teams you have and the more teams you have that advance the more units your conference gets.
This link explains how the units work, and how the NCAA distributes the money it makes. The Big 10 and SEC does not have a way to generate $50-$60 million dollars annually through a basketball tournament.
https://www.sportico.com/leagues/college-sports/2022/ncaa-tournament-units-2022-1234669771/Another thing to watch is that currently all of the other NCAA Championships media rights are packaged together. ESPN pays one fee for the women's basketball tournament, college baseball world series, college softball world series, volleyball tournament, hockey's frozen four, etc., all of those are one rights fee. After that contract is up in 2024 these will all go to bid separately which means a ton more money for the NCAA and it's member institutions.
They're about to get more money than they ever have had.