March Madness: Top 10 Teams by Cumulative Attributed Value

When it comes to March Madness, it matters which teams have the most cumulative attributed value in the NCAA. When a smaller college makes a deep March Madness run, it rarely happens twice. In the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) era, star players often transfer to larger programs offering more money and exposure.

This dynamic clearly explains a broader pattern in the NCAA tournament’s economics. Researchers at Doc’s Sports analyzed every NCAA Tournament since 2002 and found a small group of programs consistently captures a disproportionate share of national attention and the economic activity associated with it.The Doc’s Sports study estimates the 2025 NCAA Tournament will generate $597.4 million in total modeled economic activity.

This is combined to total $550 million in annualized national media rights value, $31 million in sports betting activity, and $16.4 million in host-city impact, per a single-site case study. With all that said, here are the top 10 teams with the most cumulative attributed value, along with little-known details that might surprise readers like you.

Top 8 Teams vs. Top 16 Teams by Total Modeled Attention

Doc’s Sports stated in 2025 that the top eight teams account for 12.9% of total modeled attention, while the top 16 account for 20.9%. Long-term NCAA leaders, like Duke, Kansas, and Gonzaga, have been dominating the cumulative attributed value since 2002. The $597.4 million figure isn’t NCAA payouts. It’s an estimate of total economic activity associated with the tournament, allocated based on projected team attention.

Top 10 Teams by Cumulative Attributed Value

Doc’s Sports’ top 10 ranking ranks NCAA programs by long-term economic influence, combining each program’s modeled contribution across every NCAA Tournament since 2002.
Duke leads the top 10 ranking with $186.43 million. Kansas trails Duke with $165.35 million. Gonzaga, Kentucky, and North Carolina round out the top five with $153.46 million, $146.77 million, and $141.39 million, respectively.

Arizona opens the second half of the ranking with $129.80 million. Michigan State trails Arizona with $129.69 million. UCLA, Villanova, and Louisville round out the bottom five with $127.11 million, $125.07 million, and $123.37 million, respectively.

How Doc’s Sports Measures Teams’ Attention Shares

For each NCAA season, Doc’s Sports takes every team’s Pre-Tournament AdjEM (efficiency margin), standardizes these across all Division I teams, then applies a SoftMax transform. This gives each team a weight that sums to one across the entire nation. Higher AdjEM corresponds to a larger expected attention share for a larger slice of the money pools.

Top Three Money Pools

1. Media Rights ($550 Million)

CBS and Turner Networks signed a deal with the NCAA to broadcast March Madness games. The total deal is worth $8.8 billion and runs from 2017 through 2032, covering 16 years of NCAA Tournament action. To understand how much money is available in a year, divide $8.8 billion by 16 years, which is approximately $550 million per NCAA season.

It’s important to note that the NCAA doesn’t hand out $550 million in a single year to schools. The money is paid over the entire contract period, but thinking of $550 million per year helps compare it fairly to other money sources, like betting.

2. Sports Betting ($31 Million)

During March Madness, many people place bets. In 2025, the American Gaming Association estimated that about $3.1 billion in legal bets were placed on March Madness games. The $3.1 billion is the total amount wagered, not the money earned by sportsbooks or the NCAA.

In this study, 1% of $3.1 billion ($31 million) was described as “captured economic value.” This was a conservative estimate, but it represents the value generated by the NCAA Tournament. The actual percentage could be higher or lower depending on how one defines “value.”

3. Host City Impact ($16.4 Million)

When the NCAA Tournament comes to a city, it attracts visitors, who spend money on hotels, restaurants, gas, and shopping. These cities will see a big economic boost for a few days. Raleigh, North Carolina, hosted the first- and second-round games in 2025.

Local tourism officials reported that the NCAA Tournament generated about $16.4 million in direct spending in the city. The money came from visiting fans, teams, media, and vendors. Raleigh, N.C., is just one example, but every host city experiences a different economic impact.

What’s Next

When it comes to hosting events like March Madness, some cities are larger and attract more visitors, while others are smaller and attract fewer visitors. If one adds up the spending from all the host cities that host NCAA Tournament games each year, the total would be well above $16.4 million. The actual total economic impact across all host cities is likely significantly larger.