Since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 (now 65) teams in 1985, the ACC always has had at least three schools receive bids to the sport's most prestigious postseason event. The league's highest number of NCAA bids came last year, with seven.

Both extremes — three bids or seven bids, and everything in between — remain possible this season, and that's cause for concern for ACC commissioner John Swofford and the league's athletic directors, who count in part on NCAA Tournament revenue to pay their bills.

"When it comes to the NCAA Tournament, it's the more, the merrier — literally," Maryland athletic director Debbie Yow said. "It's obviously important to us as individual schools and programs to make the NCAA Tournament. Anyone who's a competitor wants to be a part of that event. It can help your program in so many ways. It's also important for (the ACC), as a whole, to have a large presence at the NCAA Tournament."

With 11 days remaining in the regular season, only two ACC teams — North Carolina (26-2, 11-2 ACC) and Duke (24-3, 11-2) — are assured of NCAA bids. Clemson (20-7, 8-5) also is in very good shape. Four more teams remain hopeful: Virginia Tech (17-11, 8-6), Maryland (17-11, 7-6), Wake Forest (16-9, 6-6) and Miami (19-8, 6-7).

Seven bids would be great for the ACC. Three would be terrible. How the teams perform in the NCAA Tournament obviously matters, too.

“We (in the ACC) are most proud of our success in the NCAA Tournament from a competitive standpoint," Yow said. "That’s one of the things that makes us the best conference in the nation. Three of the last seven national champions came from the ACC, and the fact that it was three different schools (Duke, Maryland, UNC) shows the outstanding depth in our conference. Nobody has a better NCAA record than we do over the last 25 years.

“The money is a factor, too. The more you win, the more you get. It’s not something that causes you to bite your nails on a game-by-game basis, but we all realize that our NCAA performance as a conference over an extended period is eventually going to impact our bottom line.”

Under the revenue distribution system adopted by the NCAA in the early 1990s, a significant portion (about 40 percent) of the payouts to individual schools and conferences is determined by the performance of that school/conference in the NCAA Tournament over the most recent six-year period.

For example, the check the ACC will receive from the NCAA this year will reflect the league’s performance in the NCAA Tournament from 2002-07. The 2009 check will be based on the number of “money units” accumulated from 2003-08. The 2014 check will reflect the results from 2008-13.

Each conference — or, in the case of independents, each school — earns one “money unit” for every game played in a given year’s tournament. Exception: No units are credited for playing in the title game.

Last year, the ACC had a disastrous performance (by its standards) in the NCAA Tournament, with only one team (UNC) advancing past the opening weekend and nobody in the Final Four. (Before 2006-07, the last time the ACC went back-to-back seasons without a Final Four team was 1979-80.) But the conference avoided a complete disaster financially in 2007, because the record seven bids, combined with seven victories, left the league with a respectable 14 money units.

Two years ago, with a disappointing four NCAA bids and just six victories, the ACC earned only 10 money units. That stood in contrast to the league’s performance in 2004, when six NCAA participants earned 19 money units. The ACC’s average performance over the last 10 seasons is about 13 units, the highest number in the nation.

The NCAA’s move to the revolving, six-year revenue distribution formula was designed in part to lessen the impact of individual games. Because of image- and gambling-related concerns, NCAA administrators did not want to read articles about how a missed free throw in the final seconds cost a particular conference or school truckloads of cash.

In reality, though, the dreaded “million-dollar free throw” concept remains alive and well. Over the last three years, a single money unit has been worth approximately $150,000-$175,000, with the dollar value going up slightly each year. Assuming more (small) increases in future years, and remembering that each of this year’s “units” will remain in the distribution formula through 2014, the “million-dollar free throw” label appears to be a perfect fit.

Keep in mind that all NCAA Tournament money issues revolve around the NCAA’s landmark 11-year, $6 billion contract with CBS. (Yes, that’s “billion,” with a “b.”) That deal runs through 2013, when CBS is scheduled to pay $764 million to televise the event.

“Everyone in college athletics is used to the idea of big money and rising costs and the importance of large revenue streams, and they don’t get any larger than (the CBS deal),” Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman said. “That was a landmark for the NCAA, and so it’s important to all of us who are members of the NCAA. It’s the kind of thing that helps everyone pay their bills. Even in today’s environment, ‘billion’ is not a word we use very often.”

For some perspective, consider that the NCAA’s 11-year agreement with ESPN for the broadcast rights to the championships in 20 other Division I sports is worth $200 million. That’s about $18.2 million per year for all 20 sports, versus an average of about $545 million per year for men’s basketball alone.

In addition to the winning-based formula above, the NCAA keeps much of the NCAA Tournament revenue to sustain itself. In recent years, it also has distributed an additional $150 million-plus annually to member schools according to other (unrelated to winning) formulas.

ACC In The NCAA Tournament

Year -- "Money Units"

2008 -- ??
2007 -- 14
2006 -- 10
2005 -- 16
2004 -- 19
2003 -- 9
2002 -- 13
2001 -- 16