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Shoutout to Xavier for racking up the Big East’s 13th NCAA tournament share last night!
With the Musketeers still alive and Butler getting ready to take on North Carolina tonight, the Big East has two cracks at outdoing last year’s NCAA tourney money, as Villanova’s title run pushed the league to 13 shares. That total of 13 is a record high for the league since The Reformation, and any time your league is bringing in more than one share per team, you’re doing pretty good. Last year, those shares were each worth approximately $265,000 a year for each of the following six years. That’s nearly $3.5 million/year earned from the 2016 tournament, and the league is already up to that (or slightly more?) for this year’s payouts as well.
That’s why we cheer for the entire league once the ball is tipped in the tournament, kids.
Anyway, we’ve got another solid doubleheader of games tonight, and thankfully we don’t have to wait for the end of an incredibly long West Virginia/Gonzaga game to get to the Big East feature of the night. The only real disappointment is that watching the Bulldogs is going to distract me from watching the Eye On College Basketball Podcast Invitational over on TBS. (Shoutout to Devan Downey, shoutout to Terry Teagle.)
All of the games will be streamed through March Madness Live.
All times Central
6:09pm: #1 North Carolina Tar Heels vs #4 Butler Bulldogs, CBS
6:29pm: #3 Baylor Bears vs #7 South Carolina Gamecocks, TBS
8:39pm: #2 Kentucky Wildcats vs #3 UCLA Bruins, CBS
8:59pm: #4 Florida Gators vs #8 Wisconsin Badgers, TBS