7:56 pm ET
Pete ThamelESPN
PHILADELPHIA. One of the most compelling aspects of St. Peter’s NCAA Tournament hosting is the proportionate size of the school’s sports budget compared to NCAA Tournament winning schools.
St. Peters beat No. 2 Kentucky, No. 7 Murray State, and No. 3 Purdue, which is remarkable given that St. Peters spent $130 million less on athletics last year than Kentucky. St. Peter’s Athletic Director Rachelle Paul said the school’s basketball operating budget, which does not include coaches’ salaries, is less than $250,000, the lowest in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference to date.
With the St. Peters No. 15 playing the No. 8 in North Carolina for a Final Four chance on Sunday, MAAC and the St. Peters will face a sticky question. How do they share the trophies from St. Peter’s Magic Run?
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The math for NCAA tournament money is shaky, but it’s safe to assume that St. Peter’s three NCAA Tournament wins mean a windfall of at least $6 million in extra money from three additional NCAA divisions. This money is distributed among the MAAC over the next six years, and the league has the right to distribute the money on its own.
“I’d like to see how it’s distributed among MAAC members, I’d like St. Peter’s to get a little more,” Paul said. “Honestly, we do it.”
Paul added that St. Peter’s accomplishments and accompanying financial growth are “unprecedented”. MAAC commissioner Rich Ensor, who is a St. Peter’s alumnus, acknowledges this, but said it’s unlikely there will be windfall in St. Peter’s path.
Ensor said the final decision on how to fairly compensate St. Peter’s is something he will have to “consider with my board” which is made up of MAAC presidents. Ensor said that there is already a distribution system in place that allows teams that win the tournament to receive a “modest” portion of the money. The remaining surplus money is expected to be used to improve basketball in the league.
“I don’t expect there to be a jackpot,” he said of St. Peter’s. “(Presidents) can go in a different direction. It’s really not my decision. They tend to want to reinvest.”
For a league like the MAAC, which doesn’t have revenue from major football conferences, a run like this is transformative. The MAAC has not received more than one unit in the NCAA Tournament since 2009.
The MAAC, like all auto-bet conferences in the NCAA tournament, guarantees one unit each year. These units are worth $338,210.96 this year, according to the NCAA. These units are paid out over six years and, according to the NCAA, they fluctuate based on broadcast rights. This means each unit costs at least $338,210.96 over six years, or $2,029,265. For MAAC, this means that this run is worth more than $8.1 million, of which $2 million is already guaranteed. How could much of this money earmarked for St. Peter’s help the infamous cash-strapped program?
“Oh my god,” Paul said. “It could change our entire program. It can help with recruitment, scholarships, equipment upgrades. There are a million things we could use that money for.”
Peter’s coach Shaheen Holloway earns almost $266,000 a year, according to the latest available tax documents. (The possibility of him leaving for Seton Hall, his alma mater, looms in part because they can pay him nearly ten times what they can at St. Peter’s.)
According to Paul, on the St. Peter’s is four people who are not paid at all. And even St. Peter’s University has smaller donations ($37 million) than Kentucky coach John Calipari’s current contract total ($86 million). Paul said basketball’s modest operating budget doesn’t even include things like payments to officials, as fundraising is required for things that many have allocated money for.
“I would say that we have ways to just get to the point where we are comfortable, and not calculate the numbers for each trip and each hotel,” she said. “Maybe I’m making it sound more terrible than it really is. But we are very conscientious about what we spend money on. It goes so far.”
When the St. Peter’s run is truly over, there will be a lot of focus on campus on how they are financially rewarded for their efforts.