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There is no price tag on the amount of free publicity that Saint Peter’s University is getting during March Madness, but there will be a dollar amount for the actual income the school will receive as a result of its basketball team’s Cinderella run.

And it might be underwhelming, according to ESPN.

“I don’t anticipate there’s going to be a jackpot,” Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference commissioner Rich Ensor said in the report.

Saint Peter’s athletic director Rachelle Paul told ESPN that the basketball program’s operating budget is less than $250,000 (excluding coaching salaries) and significantly less than all of its MAAC rivals. 

Sunday’s matchup against North Carolina in the Elite Eight marked the fourth NCAA Tournament game for the Peacocks. It is the first time since 2009 that any team from the MAAC has won a game and advanced.

Since each win adds up to a bigger slice of the revenue pie, Saint Peter’s has earned about $8.1 million and counting so far, according to ESPN. But that money gets divided up within the 11-team conference over the span of six years, per the report. The conference’s university presidents “tend to want to reinvest” the money, Ensor said.


  St. Peter’s KC Ndefo #11 and Jaylen Murray #32 Getty Images St. Peter’s KC Ndefo #11 and Jaylen Murray #32 Getty Images

“I would like to see however it’s distributed among the members of the MAAC, I’d like to see Saint Peter’s get a little bit more,” Paul said. “We’re the ones doing this, quite frankly.”

Every little bit extra helps a school like Saint Peter’s, even if it is still not going to be enough to keep head coach Shaheen Holloway from landing at his alma mater Seton Hall on a much larger contract.

“I would say we’ve got a ways to go to just get to a point where we’re comfortable not crunching numbers for every road trip and every hotel,” Paul said. “I’m probably making it sound more dire than it is. But we’re very conscientious about what we spend the money on. It only goes so far.”

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