On Tuesday night, HBCU fans celebrated Grambling St.’s historic 88-81 OT win over Montana St. in the First Four of the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament.
It was the first time in program history that the Tigers made the NCAA Tournament, a feat which is more incredible when you realize that the team started the season at 2-10. But after beating Texas Southern to claim the SWAC Tournament Championship, Grambling won a trip to the Tournament and was placed in the First Four against the Bobcats.
“To get a first-round win, it’s just amazing,” said Grambling head coach Donte’ Jackson. “That is just major exposure for our program, just letting these guys know that they could have went to all these other big schools and things of that nature, but they chose right by coming to Grambling.”
With the victory, the Tigers became the ninth HBCU program to win an NCAA Tournament game and the sixth to do that since 2000.
While the win was amazing and celebrated by all, it was actually bigger than most realize.
By advancing to play no.1 seeded Purdue in the Midwest region on Friday evening, the Tigers earned the SWAC two “units”, which amounts to an estimated $4 million payout from the NCAA, which will be paid out over six years. A unit refers to each tournament game played.
So if Grambling pulls the upset over the Boilermakers, they could rake in another unit payout for the conference.
Many might not give the program from Louisiana a chance against Purdue, but they said the same thing last year about Fairleigh Dickinson when they faced Purdue in the same position as the Tigers, and look how that turned out for the Knights.
They shocked the world and busted almost every bracket by becoming the second no.16 seed to defeat a no.1 seed in tournament history.
If Grambling becomes the third no.16 ranked team to achieve this feat, it would be an amazing victory for the school and HBCUs across the nation.
And it would give the SWAC a few more million reasons to celebrate.
