Mizzou men’s basketball turnaround season contributes to economic boost for SEC programs
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The success of Mizzou men's basketball this season isn't just something Tiger fans will take pride in.
"In this day of transfer portals and kids coming in and out and you know, you're having to pick up transfers to complete a team as people graduate or leave... to pull all those pieces together certainly after last year's season to this year's is really remarkable," Volunteer at the University of Missouri Wally Pfeffer said.
As a whole, the Southeast Conference will earn $26 million off the bat, after setting a new record in earning the most bids than any other conference in history, according to Front Office Sports. Fourteen-of-the-16 teams in the SEC earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament. The previous record for a conference, set by the Big East in 2011 was 11 teams in the tournament.
Mizzou was picked as the No. 6 seed in the West Region and will face No. 11 seeded Drake on Thursday in Wichita, Kansas. The news marks a turnaround for the Tigers, who went 0-18 in conference play during the 2024 season and failed to earn a tournament bid.
"I think it's like shifting and copying with what happened with football where a lot more people are watching basketball because of this and it's bringing a lot more basketball and just Mizzou spirit to Columbia," MU sophomore Carter Sigg said.
Each conference earns a distribution from the "Equal Conference Fund" from going to the bid and sending its conference champion. The total sum of money is between $50-$60 million.
Conferences also earn a unit of $2 million from the Men's Basketball Performance Fund. Teams also earn an additional unit for each game they advance to up to the national championship game.
Conference champions are not apart of the units calculation, which in this case means Florida's win in the SEC isn't included, which is why the SEC will only earn $26 million. The money is a significant boost than the previous season when only eight teams from the SEC landed a spot in the tournament.
Pfeffer said he believes this season sends a message to the country as a whole to never count out Mizzou.
While the financial aspect of the tournament is always a bonus, he says a tournament run also says a lot about the school's development.
"It helps Mizzou in terms of its footprint across the country," Pfeffer said. "When the University went into the SEC, we went in two areas where we had alumni but no chapters and now we have 120 chapters across the country."
