Report: NCAA Basketball Tournaments set to expand from 64 teams to 76
The move creates eight additional at-large bids and a 24-team play-in round.
March Madness is about to get even more mad.
Per Pete Thamel of ESPN, the move is reportedly set to take effect in the 2026-27 season, and will be formally adopted in mid-May once NCAA committees have met to approve the agreed-upon terms with media partners.
The reported move will affect both the men's and women's basketball tournaments, and essentially expands the "First Four" round three-fold, with 12 games over two days to set various seeds in the 64-team bracket.
Dayton, Ohio– the traditional host of the men's "First Four" round since 2001– as well as a second location "west of the Eastern time zone" will host these new play-in games under the new set-up, with each location getting six games.
The transition from 64 to 76 teams will create an additional eight at-large bids, with a blend of at-large bids and conference champions who could have qualified for the traditional bracket playing in the new opening round of games on the Tuesday and Wednesday of the tournament's first week.
Power conferences have pushed for expansion in recent months, per Thamel, with NCAA president Charlie Baker supporting the idea as recently as February, saying he felt the 36-team cut-off was too small and that adding at-larges protects automatic qualifiers and generates interest.
Per Gary Perrish and Matt Norlander of CBS Sports, all 16-seeds and half of the 15-seeds will play games Tuesday and Wednesday of the newly-formed opening round of games, while a mixture of double-digit seeds will be assigned to make up the rest of the bracket.
The 32 automatic bids for winning a conference title are in no jeopardy of change under the new system– though some mid-major and low-major teams could be affected by being placed in the new opening round instead of the First Four or traditional bracket.
The bracket size conversation came to a head during this year's tournament, when MAC regular-season champion Miami, who finished the regular season campaign undefeated, was selected as an at-large over several programs from Power conferences after losing in the MAC Tournament quarterfinals to UMass.
The ire of Miami's selection ultimately came down to their perceived strength-of-schedule, which was one of the worst in the country. Miami (31-1) made it in over two SEC programs in Auburn (17-16) and Oklahoma (19-15), as well as Big Ten program Indiana (18-14.)
In the wake of Miami's selection– and win over Power program SMU in the First Four– some advocates argued for expanding the tournament so teams like Auburn and Oklahoma, with better strengths of schedule and pedigree, could be rewarded for playing tougher schedules instead of giving spots to programs who don't have a shot at contention.
There is, of course, the financial aspect.
More games to broadcast means more inventory for the NCAA's media partners, and more at-large programs means more money to both those schools and their affiliated conferences, as they are awarded based on performance once entered into the bracket.
The argument could be made such a radical expansion would dilute what is considered a fairly popular and competitive tournament, by adding in more bubble teams at the cost of conference champions and adding more wear-and-tear to those teams who do qualify for this new set-up, while also further punishing programs with lower resources by pushing them further out of the 64-team bracket.
The knock-back effects of the change won't be known for nearly 10 months. For now, though, it looks like a sudden farewell to the "First Four", and a sudden hello to 8 more programs in March Madness starting next season.
