Mount St. Mary's, a tiny Catholic university in Emmitsburg, won its first NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament game ever last night, beating Coppin State, 69-60, to continue an improbable postseason run for its 2,100 students.
For schools like Mount, Coppin and the University of Maryland Baltimore County, just making the 65-team tournament already has generated headlines, excitement - and money.
Several Mount St. Mary's administrators described the benefits that a smaller school gets from participating as "priceless."
"It's something that gives us an incredible amount of publicity and stature," Dan Soller, Mount St. Mary's executive vice president, said before last night's game. "People are so passionate about sports."
The Mountaineers advance to face No. 1 seed North Carolina Friday night in Raleigh, N.C. UMBC plays earlier Friday in Raleigh against second-seeded Georgetown.
Among the benefits the tournament brings is cash from giddy alumni writing checks and from an NCAA payout - about $1.2 million over six years - to each school's conference.
After UMBC secured its first NCAA bid Saturday, graduates "kept coming up to me saying they were going to send me a check," said university President Freeman A. Hrabowski III.
"Presidents love that," he said. "Getting alumni back to campus gives them a chance to remember what the university has done for them."
Every round a school advances means more money. UMBC, for example, will get $1.2 million over six years for the nine-member America East Conference. If UMBC were to upset Georgetown, it would claim another $1.2 million for the league. Mount St. Mary's also will receive $1.2 million for its conference, and UMBC was awarded a $25,000 "bonus" from its league for making the tournament.
The money is meaningful to a school like UMBC, whose $9.3 million athletic budget is less than one-fifth the size of larger programs such as the one at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Some academicians question whether the lure of big money is pulling colleges away from their central mission of education. In recent tournaments, most of the participating schools have graduated fewer than half of their players, according to the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, a watchdog group. "I think it would be a good idea to have some kind of a benchmark for being able to participate in the tournament," said sociologist Jay Coakley, author of Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies.
