Published: June 27, 2008 01:40 am      

WVU basketball brings in nearly $3 million

MORGANTOWN — One thing is certain: Bob Huggins is earning his money as West Virginia University’s basketball coach.

Not only did he turn Joe Alexander into a first-round pick in Thursday night’s NBA draft, but his basketball team was worth nearly $3 million to the Mountaineers after its run to the Elite Eight this year.

According to Russ Sharp, assistant athletic director/finances, the Mountaineers received a check on Wednesday for $2,946,000 from the Big East, covering its take from all sports for the school year other than football.

“Easily 90 percent or more of that comes from men’s basketball,” Sharp said.

While women’s basketball, soccer and other sports also are involved, it is men’s basketball that carries the non-football revenue load at the university. Its many national television appearances during the regular season, its play in the Big East Tournament and its run in the NCAA Tournament account for the money.

The NCAA has a complicated system to figure the take each conference gets out of the CBS-NCAA 11-year, $6-billion contract.

It bases on the average number of games a conference plays in the post-season tournament over six years. Say the Big East plays 72 games over six years, it would be paid 12 “units.”

This year the Big East received a $16 million check from the NCAA, which led to a base distribution of $820,000 to each of the 16 teams.

However, teams also get a $125,000 appearance fee for each game in the NCAA Tournament, and the NCAA pays the school’s travel expenses, picking up travel and giving a per diem for the traveling party.

This shows why schools and conferences fight so hard to land as many NCAA bids as possible and why they have such a huge advantage over so-called “mid-majors” who have trouble building up units.

“It does reward success,” Sharp said of the system.

With expectations high that Huggins will continue to produce NCAA Tournament teams, thereby bringing in increased revenues, the future of the WVU program would seem to be well taken care of.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.