March Madness can bring buzzer beaters, fun memories and in some cases, heartbreak. However, the tournament impacts players, teams, and the communities hosting the tournament in plenty of ways.

For example, the total revenue of last year’s NCAAA Tournament was $1.14 billion. This doubled 2020 and the pre pandemic tournaments.

The highest paid coach in college basketball is Bill Self who works for Kansas University at $10.2 million per year. Self makes more than the Kansas University’s Chancellor and the Kansas Governor combined.

Houston, is the host of the Final Four this year for the Men’s NCAA Tournament. They are projected as a city to see $300 million dollars of impact.

For those working who can not attend March Madness and might want to watch it in their office, $16.3 billion dollars are lost due to people watching March Madness during work. On average, six hours are spent watching March Madness by the average worker. In addition, 37% of Americans call sick or skip work to watch NCAA March Madness.

Besides Houston, 13 cities will be hosting the NCAA Men’s Tournament. Those cities include Dayton, Ohio Birmingham, Alabama, Des Moines, Iowa, Orlando, Florida, Sacramento, California, Albany, New York, Columbus, Ohio, Denver, Colorado, Greensboro, North Carolina, Las Vegas, Nevada, New York, New York, Kansas City, Missouri, and Louisville Kentucky.

Participation in trying to have the perfect bracket in America is at 36.5 million people. Furthermore, every year there are around 80 million brackets completed. Comparing it to the 2020 election, there were 156 million ballots casted. To have a perfect bracket, the odds are 9.2 quintillion.

Last year when Kansas vs. North Carolina played in the NCAA National Championship, 18.1 million people tuned into the action. On social media, 11.2 million social media posts happened about Match Madness in 2022.

This year will be the 84th NCAA Tournament, and the first NCAA Tournament took place in 1939. In the 1939 NCAA Tournament, only eight teams were in the field.