NCAA Basketball Committees Discuss March Madness Expansion to 72 or 76 Teams

The NCAA committees for men's and women's Division I basketball recently met to discuss the potential expansion of the March Madness tournaments but made no immediate decisions. The options being considered include maintaining the current 68-team format or expanding to 72 or 76 teams by the 2026 or 2027 championships. NCAA President Charlie Baker expressed interest in resolving the issue soon and noted ongoing conversations with TV partners CBS and Warner Bros., whose current $1.1 billion annual rights deal runs through 2032, though no guaranteed increase in fees is expected to cover expansion costs. Speculation about expansion focuses on increasing the number of at-large bids, likely benefiting major conferences, which could reduce automatic bids for champions of lower-level conferences. The current First Four model, which involves four play-in games including two with 16-seeds (automatic qualifiers) and two with at-large teams, has been criticized by some like Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey, who cited examples of bubble teams making deep tournament runs. Financial considerations remain a primary factor in delaying expansion, despite mid-major conferences' support and logistical challenges associated with adding more teams.