Club Sportico: March Madness

Last minute bracket advice

Eben Novy-Williams — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 14:37:26 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Today, we’re frantically filling out brackets 🏀

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If you’re reading this before 12:15 p.m. ET, there’s still time to join Club Sportico’s bracket challenges on ESPN! Top performing paid Club Sportico members for each will win a small prize.

⛹️‍♂️ Men’s Bracket Challenge: Click here.
⛹️‍♀️ Women’s Bracket Challenge: Click here.

Instead of having an all-chalk entry, we’ll have an entry called “More Money Wins” that picks whichever school spends more on basketball. If you beat that entry, consider yourself a Moneyball aficionado.

Here’s Eben on why you should consider advancing an 11-seed deep in your bracket (if you trust him)…

Plus some more data from Lev to help inform your surely-perfect picks.

Good luck! May this be your year!

Club Sportico is a community organized by Sportico, a digital media company launched in 2020 to cover the business side of sports. You can read breaking news, smart analysis, and in-depth features from Eben, Jacob and their colleagues at Sportico.com, and listen to the Sporticast podcast wherever you get your audio. Contact us at club@sportico.com.

The more madness, the merrier

Eben Novy-Williams — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 15:59:51 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Today, we’re winning or going home 🏀

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In an era of unending, incomprehensible college sports instability, there’s one thing you can count on1: Madness.

We’ll be doing bracket challenges for the men’s and women’s tournaments at the links below. Top performing paid Club Sportico members for each will win a small prize.

Instead of having an all-chalk entry, we’ll have an entry called “Richer Team Wins” that picks whichever school spends more on basketball. If that system beats all the other entries—and it might, if Kentucky, Ohio State and Louisville2 make deep runs—Eben will give the prize to his favorite college coach, Dan Hurley.

⛹️‍♂️ Men’s Bracket Challenge: Click here.
⛹️‍♀️ Women’s Bracket Challenge: Click here.

Good luck and bring on the bracket busters!

Actually… NIL and transfer portals and player pay may be actively cementing the major programs with an unbeatable advantage. Last year was historically chalky. But we’re staying optimistic.

The three biggest spenders among public schools in 2023-24.

March Madness Daily: IF Houston had won...

Eben Novy-Williams — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 16:03:04 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Today, we talk in hypotheticals:

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March Madness Daily: Men's Final Proves “Administrations Win Championships”

Jacob Feldman — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 15:31:51 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Today, we talk about the true keys to success:

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Bracket Update🚨: Congrats to (Sportico Senior Editor) Bette Canter for winning our women’s tournament challenge, via tiebreaker over Kim Mulkey’s Feather Boa. On the men’s side, G…

March Madness Daily: Dawn Staley is the progress

Eben Novy-Williams — Sun, 06 Apr 2025 16:01:44 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Today, we talk about getting that bag:

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Eben: When Dawn Staley was hired by South Carolina in 2008, her starting salary was $640,000. Should the Gamecocks 🐔 win their fourth title on Sunday, her performance bonuses alone would …

March Madness Daily: The Rifleman speaks

Eben Novy-Williams — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 15:03:09 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Today, we talk about some people who broke the rules:

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Eben: In some alternate universe, few people would be enjoying Auburn’s Final Four run more than Chuck Person. Nicknamed ‘The Rifleman,’ Person starred at Auburn 🐯 in the 1…

March Madness Daily: UConn is UNique

Eben Novy-Williams — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 14:31:16 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Today, we do some budgeting:

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Eben: Last year two schools sent both their men’s and women’s teams to the Final Four. UConn 🐶 and… can you name the other?? (Answer here 👉 1 )

In the history of the two tournaments, that’s only hap…

March Madness Daily: It's Déjà vu

Eben Novy-Williams — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 16:03:37 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Today, we’re chanting writing about a first for women’s hoops.

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Eben: Stop me if this sounds familiar. The NCAA gives out money to conferences based on their performance in March Madness, and this year, the SEC earned more than …

March Madness Daily: The rich are getting richer

Eben Novy-Williams — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 15:03:52 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Today, we’re chanting S-E-C! S-E-C! S-E-C!

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Eben: One of the coolest things that we’ve done in Sportico’s first five years was this video 👇 explaining how the NCAA distributes money for performance during March Madness. There’s …

March Madness Daily: Here's a record that may never be broken

Eben Novy-Williams — Sun, 30 Mar 2025 14:31:16 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Today, we talk about college basketball history.

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Eben: Yesterday afternoon, TCU star Hailey Van Lith scored 26 points to lead the Horned Frogs past heavily favored Notre Dame and into the Elite Eight. It is the further TCU has e…

March Madness Daily: A tale of two UConn stars

Eben Novy-Williams — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 15:02:07 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Today, we look at two UConn stars.

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Eben: UConn women’s basketball stars Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd are both eligible for the WNBA draft. Only one will hear her name called next month.

Fudd announced Tuesday that she will retur…

March Madness Daily: Separating the Men From the Boys

Lev Akabas — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 16:37:13 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Today, the data guy is back!

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Lev: Auburn 🐅 small forward Chad Baker-Mazara is older than the average starter in last night’s NBA game between the Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder. Baker-Mazara is 25. He spent his fre…

March Madness Daily: BYU is riding those 'Silicon Slopes'

Eben Novy-Williams — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 15:59:29 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Today we take a quick trip to Salt Lake City.

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Eben: There’s no city in the country quite like Salt Lake City, and there’s no team left in the men’s tournament quite like BYU 🐈.

Amid a Sweet Sixteen made up mostly of college fo…

March Madness Daily: Purdue is the only pure team left

Eben Novy-Williams — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 14:01:52 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Here’s a different way to look at the Sweet Sixteen.

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Eben: If you needed any more evidence that the college sports needs a dramatic overhaul, the NCAA’s transfer portal opened on Monday. In the middle of March Madness (and other…

March Madness Daily: How to talk about chalk

Eben Novy-Williams — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 14:30:33 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Here’s some historical context about favorites.

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Eben: This year’s tournament has been heavy on the March, light on the Madness. But what makes an NCAA tournament boring—lack of upsets, or lack of close games? And has 2025 been u…

March Madness Daily: A Wild Stat That May Say Everything, or Nothing

Eben Novy-Williams — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 14:28:26 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Here’s a nugget about the Sweet Sixteen.

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Eben: In 1978, the NCAA split Division I into multiple subgroups—the richest football schools (now FBS), a second tier of football schools (now FCS), and the non-football schools. The mov…

March Madness Daily: The Rise of The Extension Bonus

Eben Novy-Williams — Sun, 23 Mar 2025 14:31:20 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Here’s a nugget about college coaches and their contracts:

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Eben: Millions of dollars are distributed each year to coaches for their performance during March Madness. For most, it comes in the form of cash bonuses for reaching to…

March Madness Daily: Bryant Made (Recent) Tournament History

Eben Novy-Williams — Sat, 22 Mar 2025 14:03:07 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Here’s something you may not have noticed about the first round:

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Eben: For the past seven years, every single team that played in the men’s NCAA tournament has worn jerseys made by Nike, Adidas, or Under Armour. That run ended l…

The Cinderella 2025 Deserves

Jacob Feldman — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 14:35:54 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Here’s an ode to McNeese State:

But first! 🚨 There’s just a few hours left to join our women’s pool! Prizes will be given to the top-finishing paid Club Sportico member, but everyone is welcome to enter via ESPN! Join here 👇

Wo…

March Madness Daily: Last Minute Bracket Tips

Lev Akabas — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 14:33:13 GMT

Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Here’s a last-minute cheat sheet for your bracket:

But first! 🚨 There’s just a few hours left to join our men’s pool! (And 24 hours for the women’s.) Prizes will be given to the top-finishing paid Club Sportico member, but ever…