George Mason in 2006.
Florida Gulf Coast in 2013.
Loyola Chicago in 2018.
Oral Roberts in 2021.
And Saint Peter’s in 2022, which was the first 15 seed to make the Elite 8.
The Business Behind Saint Peter’s Run
Along their run, Saint Peter’s took down some powerhouses in Kentucky, Murray State, and Purdue.
Saint Peter’s Compared To Their Opponents
Saint Peter’s generates roughly $1.57M in revenue.
Compared to: $29.31 million – Kentucky $3.99 million – Murray State $15.16 million – Purdue $25.2 million – UNC
The University of Kentucky spent $1M on recruiting alone in 2021.
Saint Peter’s total basketball expenses are slightly over that.
St. Peter’s basketball stadium (3,000) versus the teams they beat.
Kentucky: 23,500 Murray State: 8,600 Purdue: 14,200
More UK students attend Wildcat games than St. Peter’s stadium can hold.
St. Peter’s head coach Shaheen Holloway makes approximately $250,000.
Compared to: John Calipari: $8.5M Matt McMahon: $2.6M Matt Painter: $3.1M Hubert Davis: $1.75M
Coach K said Holloway is “worth more than $10M to the university”.
Jim Larranaga took George Mason to the Final Four in 2006.
The school raised his salary to $375,000 in 2007 (more than 90% YoY).
few years later UMiami offered him $1.3M.
NIL And Other March Madness Earnings
Saint Peter’s has earned ~ $8.1 million from its NCAA tourney run.
But there’s a catch…
That money gets divided up within the MAAC conference over the span of several years – they’ll receive roughly $812k/yr.
NIL is paying off for athletes.
It is believed that he made over $10,000 during their 2-week run.
A year before Saint Peter’s historic NCAA run, the university received 149 donations totaling a little under $500,000.
From March 9-26th, as the Peacocks advanced through the tournament, the school received 414 gifts totaling over $2.3 million.
More Eyeballs = More Money For St. Peter’s
St. Peter’s University reported more than $300,000 in merchandise sales just two weeks after the Peacocks upset Kentucky.
But here’s what’s wild…
In the first eight months of the fiscal year, which started in July of 2021, the school reported just over $58,000 in sales.
So in 2 weeks, they made nearly 6x what they make in a year.
And sales were booming on the campus as well.
The university totaled $47,000 in sales from March 17-24. Over $15,000 in apparel was sold on March 24, the day before the Elite 8 game vs. Purdue.
Here’s some interesting perspective…
From September to December, $20,000 in apparel sales took place on St. Peter’s campus. They nearly did that in one day during March Madness.
During the week of March 12th, search terms for Saint Peter’s on Amazon were comparable to the biggest college football teams in the run-up to their seasons (think Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame, etc).
In the two days following their upset of Kentucky, Saint Peter’s was the top-selling institution on Amazon, with over $40,000 in sales reported by sports merchandise retailer Trevco.
There’s also this thing called “media attention” and St. Peter’s received a lot of it.
It’s estimated that the university received between $125m and $150m in “free media” during their tournament run.
But what about enrollment, NIL, and future implications?
The Benefits Will Last For Years
St. Peter’s athletic director Eugene Cornacchia recently said that an alumni reception in Bergen, NJ drew more than 70 people — it would typically get around 25.
It’s anticipated that applications and enrollment will increase as well, but won’t become clear until next year. The school’s international graduate business program has already attracted additional interest from Japan, Italy, and India according to Cornacchia.
For reference:
Florida Gulf Coast University in 2014 saw the number of university applications increase by 27.4 percent year over year — the first full admissions cycle following the men’s basketball program’s Sweet 16 run in 2013.
I don’t anticipate Saint Peter’s to have as drastic of an increase, but there will certainly be a bump up.
Winning Has Side-Effects
Despite all the wins, there have been some setbacks though.
Head basketball coach Shaheen Holloway left the school a day after the Peacocks lost to North Carolina for a reported $2M/yr.
Holloway took the head coaching job at Seton Hall, a Big East Conference school where he played his college ball.
Following the announcement, nearly half of St. Peter’s men’s basketball players entered the transfer portal.
This included Doug Edert, who gained a lot of media attention for his mustache and 3-point shooting during the tournament run.
Doug made over $10,000 in NIL money and is transferring to Bryant University.
All in all, making a run during the March Madness tournament equates to big business for the school.
