March Madness ... The NCAA tournament can be a cash machine for people that are good at picking upsets in their brackets. But it's also a cash machine for all 32 conferences that compete in the men’s tournament. Each conference gets $2 million for each team that makes the tournament – with an additional $2 million for each win up to the Final Four. That means $136 million is already set for the 68 tournament teams, with about $128 million up for grabs. The cash, which comes from the tournament TV rights, is paid out to conferences over six years. Last year, the SEC topped all other conferences with roughly $34 million from 17 units earned by its eight teams.
More March Madness ... Long Beach State is the only team in the men's tournament with a coach who is no longer an employee of the university. Last week the school fired men’s basketball coach Dan Monson -- but allowed him to coach out the season. Long Beach State got three straight wins to take the Big West automatic bid. Even with that success the school has not changed its mind. Monson and his #15 seed take on #2 Arizona Thursday.
Still More March Madness ... Iowa star Caitlin Clark has such a high profile that she's the only college player to get her own reporter from ESPN. Holly Rowe, who's in the basketball Hall of Fame as a winner of the Naismith Hall of Fame Curt Gowdy Media Award, has been assigned by the network to exclusively cover Clark during the first two games of the women's tournament in Iowa City.