NCAA Money Matters: The Sweet 16

By Kyle Whelliston on March 27, 2008 4:06 PM | Permalink

There are 16 teams left to fight over the National Championship, each with just four more wins to go to achieve the ultimate prize. Strangely enough, they spent widely disparate amounts of money to get here.

As my new friend TuckyBill likes to say, "mid-major" is just another name for "more bang for your buck." Our two remaining candidates were out-dollared in every possible way, but they're right here alongside the big spenders from the power conferences. Will deeper pockets finally defeat Davidson's and Western Kentucky's dreams? In our third installment of this particular feature, we show exactly the kind of spending power these two are going up against.

As with the other two grids, data is culled from the Office of Postsecondary Education's Equity in Athletics report, using 2006-07 information (the latest available).

Differences in Overall Athletic Expenses

$72,774,942 - [3] Wisconsin ($81,401,728) vs. [10] Davidson ($8,626,786)
$44,100,958 - [1] UCLA ($61,309,668) vs. [12] Western Kentucky ($17,208,710)
$41,054,952 - [2] Tennessee ($92,557,528) vs. [3] Louisville ($51,502,576)
$40,578,788 - [5] Michigan State ($69,914,584) vs. [1] Memphis ($29,335,796)
$36,297,174 - [1] Kansas ($58,046,960) vs. [12] Villanova ($21,749,786)
$31,283,561 - [7] West Virginia ($42,720,692) vs. [3] Xavier ($11,437,131)
$28,458,072 - [1] North Carolina ($58,188,500) vs. [4] Washington State ($29,730,428)
$25,479,344 - [2] Texas ($89,313,536) vs. [3] Stanford ($63,834,192)

Differences in Men's Basketball Budgets

$5,677,190 - [2] Texas ($6,594,163) vs. [3] Stanford ($916,973)
$5,384,192 - [5] Michigan State ($6,407,390) vs. [1] Memphis ($1,023,198)
$4,170,413 - [3] Wisconsin ($5,315,234) vs. [10] Davidson ($1,144,821)
$3,573,866 - [1] UCLA ($5,262,775) vs. [12] Western Kentucky ($1,688,909)
$3,281,393 - [1] North Carolina ($5,632,518) vs. [4] Washington State ($2,351,125)
$2,470,757 - [3] Louisville ($6,082,104) vs. [2] Tennessee ($3,611,347)
$2,364,112 - [3] Xavier ($3,154,106) vs. [7] West Virginia ($789,994)
$1,967,465 - [1] Kansas ($6,170,233) vs. [12] Villanova ($4,202,768)

Yes, I've written about it.