With Sweet 16 Berth, Saint Peter’s Earns Millions In Publicity

Saint Peter’s is the first men’s basketball program in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference to make the Sweet 16.

The Peacocks’ Cinderella run has thrust the entire school into the national spotlight, and the publicity-related rewards could extend far beyond the hardwood. 

Between about 7 p.m. on March 17 and 8 a.m. Monday, the Peacocks earned exposure worth close to $71 million, Apex Marketing Group confirmed to Front Office Sports. The Action Network first reported the metric.

There are already other noticeable short-term impacts:

• The school was the top seller for vendor Trevco this weekend, a university spokesperson told FOS. Sales topped $40,000.
• Apparel company Homefield started selling Saint Peter’s t-shirts on Sunday. By 1 p.m. ET Monday, the company had already sold 530, per founder and CEO Connor Hitchcock. 
• Star Doug Edert had about 1,500 Instagram followers in January, according to MarketPryce. He now has more than 20,000.

The Big Metric

The biggest financial reward a school can receive — besides the units it earns for its conference — is an increase in enrollment. 

Several studies have been published on the subject, including one titled “The Cinderella Effect: The Value of Unexpected March Madness Runs as Advertising for the Schools.” It found the quantity of applications didn’t go up, but “freshmen enrollments increase for private schools two academic years after a Cinderella run.”