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Oklahoma may have joined the Southeastern Conference in large part because of football. But after this season's SEC basketball results, the Sooners are also seeing a major payday because they play in college basketball's toughest conference.
The SEC saw a record number 14 teams make the men's NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sunday. That total means the league will get $26 million dollars from the Equal Conference Fund and Men's Basketball Performance Fund. The former goes to every conference by sending its conference tournament champion. The latter is extra, at about $2 million per team, added for each additional team that makes the tournament.
"I say, within this iconic conference, that men’s basketball is still this unique growth opportunity," SEC associate commissioner Garth Glissman told Front Office Sports.
A couple of years before Oklahoma decided to join the SEC, the Big 12 was considered the conference's equal - or close to it - on the court. The SEC was mired as one of the worst power-conference leagues in basketball during the early and middle part of the 2010s. The latter part of the decade, however, saw investments on the school and conference level, resulting in the league now employing six of the top 20 highest-paid coaches in the country.
The Sooners finished their first year in the SEC with a 20-13 record overall and a 6-12 mark in league play. And while the conference record is less than glimmering, the league's depth allowed Oklahoma to boost its strength of schedule and prove itself worthy. OU is the No. 9-seed in the West Regional and will play two-time defending champion Connecticut in the first round Friday at 8:25 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Sooners part of SEC's record $26 million haul in NCAA Tournament Bids
Continue reading...
The SEC saw a record number 14 teams make the men's NCAA Basketball Tournament on Sunday. That total means the league will get $26 million dollars from the Equal Conference Fund and Men's Basketball Performance Fund. The former goes to every conference by sending its conference tournament champion. The latter is extra, at about $2 million per team, added for each additional team that makes the tournament.
"I say, within this iconic conference, that men’s basketball is still this unique growth opportunity," SEC associate commissioner Garth Glissman told Front Office Sports.
A couple of years before Oklahoma decided to join the SEC, the Big 12 was considered the conference's equal - or close to it - on the court. The SEC was mired as one of the worst power-conference leagues in basketball during the early and middle part of the 2010s. The latter part of the decade, however, saw investments on the school and conference level, resulting in the league now employing six of the top 20 highest-paid coaches in the country.
The Sooners finished their first year in the SEC with a 20-13 record overall and a 6-12 mark in league play. And while the conference record is less than glimmering, the league's depth allowed Oklahoma to boost its strength of schedule and prove itself worthy. OU is the No. 9-seed in the West Regional and will play two-time defending champion Connecticut in the first round Friday at 8:25 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Sooners part of SEC's record $26 million haul in NCAA Tournament Bids
Continue reading...
