The University of Hawaii athletic department’s financials weren’t as bad as you might think in 1998 — considering UH was home to a football program on a downward spiral that reached rock-bottom with an 0-12 record that December.

One of the main reasons was what happened about nine months earlier, nowhere near Manoa. It was nearly 3,000 miles away, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Or, more precisely, it was at the Alamodome, in San Antonio … and Boise, and Anaheim — or, in other words, everywhere the Utah Utes played basketball in the 1998 NCAA Tournament.

Utah made it all the way to the Final Four, beating North Carolina in the semis before finally losing to Kentucky in the championship game.

So, how in the world did this affect UH’s ledger?

Well, 25 years ago Utah and Hawaii were both members of the Western Athletic Conference. And the way this March Madness thing works, if a team in your conference keeps winning you win too — at the bank.

Utah didn’t even win a game in the WAC Tournament that year, losing 54-51 to UNLV (at Vegas). But the Utes were 25-3 overall, so they got in as the No. 3 seed in the West Region.

Now, here’s where it gets weird: UH and Utah never played each other that season, because they were in opposite divisions of what was then a 16-team conference. They would have met in the WAC Tournament, but UH also lost to UNLV, 64-59, two nights before the Rebels beat the Utes.

Yes, this was the Rainbows team featuring Anthony Carter and Alika Smith that started the year 11-1, including an 82-65 blowout of No. 21 Indiana (this angered Bobby Knight so much he walked back to the hotel instead of riding the bus), and a 76-65 upset of No. 2 Kansas.

But UH faded during conference play, going 8-6. Hawaii settled for three NIT home games (made some money at the Sheriff), beating Arizona State and Gonzaga before losing 85-83 to Fresno State — narrowly missing out on the semifinals at Madison Square Garden.

Meanwhile, Utah was beating San Francisco, Arkansas, West Virginia, Arizona and the Tar Heels, and bringing home the bacon for the WAC in the form of $2.5 million of TV money for its five March Madness games. New Mexico, TCU and UNLV also appeared in the NCAA tourney that year, upping the total to around $4 million — of which UH and the other teams that didn’t make it to the dance received a share.

UH was already receiving a steady stream of funding thanks to Utah basketball.

The Utes made it to the tourney seven times in the ’90s. In addition to the ’98 championship appearance, there were three other Sweet 16s, including another Elite 8 in ’97.

Hawaii still gets NCAA basketball tournament money, but a lot less than the Utah frenemy days.

The conference payouts are based on tournament games appeared in.

But it’s a lot less now as a member of the Big West, which UH entered in fall of 2012.

In its nine seasons of UH’s membership, the conference has never had more than one team in the NCAA Tournament. Only four teams have won (including Hawaii in 2016), and none have won more than once in a year.

Which brings us to this: It sure would be nice if the Rainbow Warriors were in the Mountain West for basketball and not just football.

With its March Madness performance that got it all the way to the final, San Diego State basketball is now to the Mountain West what Utah was to the WAC in 1998.