Despite title loss, Purdue’s tourney run brings big impact
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowPurdue University fell to UConn 75-60 on Monday, giving the Huskies their second-straight national championship.
It was a long run for the Boilermakers, who entered their first Final Four since 1980. But regardless of the outcome, March Madness has been a big win for Purdue, and the ripple effect could have a major economic impact on the university.
“I think there’s a whole new level of visibility that comes with going to a final floor that Purdue would not have had before,” said Indianapolis sports personality Derek Schultz.
That visibility can be key for a university to attract new students and fans. Ryan Brewer, associate professor of finance at IUPUC, pointed to Butler University’s back-to-back runs to the Final Four as a prime example.
“Butler has transformed itself as a university,” Brewer said. “They’ve become more of a national university all because I think largely—at least in part—due to that Final Four run in 2010 and then following it up in 2011. They didn’t win the title, but they got the national media exposure.”
Schultz said Purdue has a model of consistency that is also attractive.
“They’ve had two head coaches in the last 40 years: Gene Keady, who’s a Hall of Famer, right into Matt Painter, who maybe someday will also be a Hall of Famer, but they haven’t gotten to this level since 1980,” Schultz said. “So I think there’s a renewed visibility with reaching this level where you are truly contending for a national championship now, as one of the Final Four teams standing, and Purdue hadn’t reached that level in a very, very long time.“
But just how significant is Purdue’s run from a dollars and cents standpoint, especially as NIL money comes into play?
Brewer said the farther that Purdue could go would help to increase the NIL cashflow even further.
“It’s hard to keep up with schools like Texas, Ohio State, even Indiana, who’s NIL cashflow is probably in the neighborhood of two to three times Purdue,” he said. “And when you’re trying to attract student-athletes from the transfer portal, it helps to have NIL coffers. So, doing what Purdue has done with Matt Painter is only going to help them in terms of attracting a different kind of student athlete.”
Purdue does have a not-for-profit NIL collective known as Boilermaker Alliance, which helps student-athletes use their name, image and likeness to boost charitable organizations.
Dave Neff, who became the organization’s president and CEO in December, said Purdue fans have a genuine love for their university. And it’s not just the men’s basketball team that will benefit from winning.
“People that care deeply about Purdue athletics genuinely care about Purdue full stop, not necessarily football or basketball or women’s volleyball,” said Neff. “And so with that, I think, by Purdue men’s basketball making the Final Four, this is going to raise all ships. We’re going to see this benefit other sports like women’s basketball, women’s volleyball, and as a result at the collective, that will in turn allow us to impact more charities.”
Neff said the weeks leading up to the Final Four have been very busy for the Boilermaker Alliance.
“Businesses have been flooding our student-athletes’ DMs with opportunities,” he said. “And so the exposure and the visibility that a Final Four run brings is truly unprecedented.”