1. March Madness
By the numbers…
2014 Edition

3. According to trend data from Kantar Media, March Madness generates more TV ad revenue than any PROFESSIONAL sports league's postseason broadcast. Last year, the NCAA earned $1.15 billion in ad revenue during pre-game, game and post-game programming.

5. $10.8 billion
CBS and Turner spent $10.8 billion for broadcast rights to the NCAA Tournament (length of the contract is 14 years)

6. 75 million
Seventy-five million Americans participated in March Madness brackets last year according to a startup company called Fanhood

7. $324 million
More than $324 million was wagered last year on pro and college basketball at Nevada sports books in the month of MARCH ALONE.

8. $2.5 billion
The FBI estimates that more than $2.5 billion is wagered illegally on March Madness (bracket “office pools” are considered gambling and not legal in the United States)

9. 9.2 Quintillion
That's ONE MILLION times bigger than 9 TRILLION…those are the odds of filling out a perfect tournament bracket for the 2014 Men’s NCAA basketball tournament.

10. 128 Billion
HOWEVER, that estimate assumes that each bracket is equally likely to win, which is clearly false. Even if you know almost nothing about basketball, you’re not going to pick a bracket that has the 16 seeds in the Final Four. Jeff Bergen, a math professor at DePaul University, estimates that there is actually a 1 in 128 billion chance that if you have a decent amount of basketball knowledge, you could conceivable pick a correct bracket.

11. $1 billion
The amount that investment guru Warren Buffett in conjunction with Quicken Loans will pay any fan who fills out a perfect bracket (the contest was limited to the first 15 million participants to fill brackets out online)

12. $1.2 billion
Estimated cost to businesses in lost worker productivity in just the FIRST WEEK of the tournament, according to Challenger Gray & Christmas who states, "Employers should be readying themselves for the inevitable drop in productivity."

13. 6.1 million
ESPN.com's national online march madness contest has already drawn over 6 million entries (brackets filled out) for the NCAA men's tournament.

14. 75%
OfficeTeam offers a different perspective, surveying more than 1,000 managers about the effect of March Madness and found that just 8 percent of managers said it disrupted productivity. Twice as many said the effect on productivity was a positive one, while the vast majority of managers surveyed — 75 percent — said the games had no effect on productivity or morale..

15. 1/3
More than a third of U.S. businesses take action to prepare their networks for the increased traffic during March Madness, the report said, and some 30 percent of IT professionals said they are pulling all-nighters to get ready.

16. $0.00
Pizza Hut is offering college basketball fans the chance to win free wings if a mascot nickname with wings wins the tournament. It should be noted Pizza Hut is NOT an official NCAA sponsor…we call this AMBUSH marketing.

17. 11
The number of teams in the tournament that have a winged mascot: Jayhawks, Cardinals, Bluejays, Cyclones (Cy the cardinal is their mascot), Hawkeyes, Hawks, Blue Hens, Chanticleer, Eagles, Ducks & Flyers
* See if you can figure out which nicknames belong to which schools!

18. 1.7 million
Domino's sold more than 1.7 million pizzas during last year’s NCAA Men's Final Four weekend alone!

19. 5
The number of teams who will not have a Nike swoosh or the three adidas stripes on their uniforms (Russell Athletic sponsors four tourney teams, Under Armour has one)

20. 73%
When the tourney field is broken down by apparel brand sponsors, there is a 73% chance that the team winning this year’s championship will be wearing Nike uniforms

22. Questions for
Class Discussion

23. How do you think March Madness contributes to a drop in worker productivity in the American workplace?
Do you agree with the possibility of the tournament costing employers billions? Why or why not?

24. What is social media?
Why do you think tracking the number of consumers who follow the tournament via some form of social media is important to the NCAA? To a broadcast company like CBS or Turner Sports? What about for advertisers/marketing professionals?

25. What are broadcast rights
What are broadcast rights? Why do you think CBS and Turner invested so much in the rights to the NCAA Tournament?
Why do you think the rights to stream games online was important to CBS?

26. Why would a company like Pizza Hut offer free wings?
Why do you think Warren Buffett and Quicken Loans are offering $1 billion to any fan who correctly picks a perfect bracket, especially if it doesn’t cost fans any money to submit an entry?

27. Why do you think Nike has so many teams in this year’s tournament?
Why do you think, aside from adidas, so few other apparel brands have participating teams wearing their gear?
Do you notice which apparel company or brand sponsors teams participating in the tournament?