NCAA Tournament holds bonus incentives for league, coaches

This year, the Atlantic Coast Conference put a record six teams (out of seven in the tournament, thanks Pitt) in the Sweet 16, compiling a record of 12-1.

Not too shabby.

The national media has turned the narrative on it's head and tried to diminish that accomplishment by pointing out the seed of ACC opponents, but I'll let our Syracuse friends over at Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician handle that response.

While the bragging rights are great, the money that comes along with it - for the conference and the coaches - is pretty sweet, too.

From ESPN:

Each game played in this year's tournament is worth $265,791. That money is paid out in each of the next six years (2017-22), with the number for each game, or unit, growing each year of the payout. Over that six-year span, the total value of a game played in this year's tournament will be at least $1.59 million.

Duke, Virginia, North Carolina, Syracuse, Notre Dame and Miami all advanced to the Sweet 16. The only ACC loss belonged to Pittsburgh, which fell 47-43 toWisconsin on Friday.

That means the ACC has 13 units from 13 games played and is guaranteed another six units from Sweet 16 games. Nineteen units will add up to more than $30.3 million over the six-year payout.

On top of the conference money, coaches have bonuses attached to post season success and Virginia's Tony Bennett has some strong incentives to win a couple more games.

So far, Coach Bennett has already earned:

$150,000: Top 10 finish in the final Associated Press Media Poll

$50,000: Making the NCAA Tournament

$100,000: Sweet 16 Appearance

Still on the table for Coach Bennett:

$250,000: Elite Eight Appearance

$250,000: Final Four Appearance

$400,000: National Champions

So, Coach has an additional $300k already in his pocket, with an impressive $900k still available. For comparison, North Carolina's Roy Williams has earned $250k for the NCAA tournament, Round of 32, and Sweet 16 appearances and can still earn another $650k for the Elite Eight, Final Four, and National Championship. Duke's Coach K, Notre Dame's Mike Brey, Miami's Jim Larranaga, and Syracuse's Jim Boeheim all have private contracts, so their information isn't available.

Nine coaches in the group of 16 remaining have public contracts, and in that group, Bennett stands to make the most with a National Championship. The lowest is Texas A&M's Billy Kennedy who would earn an additional $83,334.