It is March and the madness has definitely begun, although it is not contained to the basketball court.

Not after the NCAA released its audited financials Wednesday showing the governing association of major college athletics raked in more than $1 billion — yes, with a “B” — in revenue for the first time.

A milestone $1.06 billion, actually, for its last reporting period, September 2016 through August 2017, which is nearly a 7 percent increase from the previous period and produced a tidy $105 million profit.

The 26-page report and expectations of continued escalating profits could — and should — raise the discussion about improving the level of support for the athletes.

The audit report notes, “The NCAA is a membership-driven organization dedicated to safeguarding the well-being of student-athletes and equipping them with the skills to succeed on the playing field, in the classroom and throughout life…”

What it doesn’t show is how the mounting riches might be better channeled to the people most responsible for earning them in the first place, the athletes.

Oops, the “student-athletes” as the NCAA firmly insists they be called. That term having been calculatingly coined by Walter Byers, the NCAA’s first president, decades ago to help shield the association from pending compensation claims by injured athletes.

Brilliantly ambiguous, the term “student-athletes” has allowed the NCAA and its member institutions to, on one hand, treat athletes differently from regular students but, on the other, not require that they be compensated beyond scholarships despite the demands on their time and returns their performances can bring.

These days, amid scandals and record earnings, it has become increasingly difficult for the NCAA to defend the current model as several top tier athletic departments bring in upwards of $75 million and, some, even ring in at $100 million in a year.

The boom has raised the average salary of Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches to $2.4 million per year with Alabama’s Nick Saban the leader at $11 million, according to a USA Today survey.

More than a dozen assistant coaches top $1.15 million, according to the survey, while 50 men’s basketball head coaches top $2 million.

The current NCAA president, Mark Emmert, hasn’t done too badly for himself, either, with $1.9 million in total annual compensation, according to the last form 990 filing.

While some NCAA largesse does go to athletes through their schools, it had often taken lawsuits and the threat of more to follow to get the NCAA and its membership to part with funds that actually address, at some institutions, anyway, the full cost of attendance for athletes beyond room, board and tuition.

The release of the NCAA audit now is particularly appropriate since its men’s basketball tournament is its financial engine. The NCAA took in $761 million from its TV rights in the most recent reporting period. And, that is just the start.

Under terms of its extension with CBS and Turner Sports that is to run through 2032, the NCAA says it expects to take in $879 million for the current fiscal year followed by $902 million (2019) and on.

Keep in mind that this doesn’t include the College Football Playoff championship, which the NCAA is not party to, or the moolah major schools pull in under apparel deals with Nike, Under Armour and others.

Somewhere under this windfall the NCAA needs to find a more even-handed way to share the proceeds of its athletes’ labors.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.