Both the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments are expected to expand to 76 teams, effective next year, sources confirmed to CBS Sports on Tuesday.
A formal announcement by the NCAA is expected in May.
Expansion has been discussed and debated at the NCAA level for four years. Proponents celebrated the idea of more access while adversaries insisted it would lessen the regular season and be a net-negative for the sport. In the end, the argument for a bigger tournament that will generate additional revenue won out.
Although a decision has not formally been ratified yet, one source said it’s a “very, very small chance” that any reversal of this would happen. A slew of committees, including the men’s and women’s oversight committees, the men’s and women’s basketball selection committees, the Division I cabinet and the Board of Governors all need to approve the move in May.
“Expanding the basketball tournaments would require approval from multiple NCAA committees, including the men’s and women’s basketball committees, and no final recommendations or decisions have been made at this time,” the NCAA said in a statement released Tuesday night.
However, NCAA president Charlie Baker has been a long-time advocate for tournament expansion.
“I think there’s some very good reasons to expand the tournament, so I would like to see it expand,” Baker told reporters at the NCAA’s mock tournament selection seminar in February “For now, we’re still talking to the various players in this one. You have to remember that some of the folks we’re talking to are going through some pretty interesting corporate conversations of their own. And I think for us, we accept and acknowledge that, but we’re still talking.”
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How a 76-team bracket would work
This will be the first expansion of the NCAA Tournament since it went from 64 to 68 teams in 2011. The move will create eight additional at-large bids. What’s been known as the First Four — eight teams playing four games in Dayton, Ohio, on Tuesday and Wednesday of the first week of the NCAA Tournament — will now include 12 games played by 24 teams at two different locations, one of which will remain Dayton. The second opening round site is not known but will be in the Pacific, Mountain or Central time zones.
The move to 76 would mean 52 teams would auto-slot into the main bracket and 12 games for 24 teams Tuesday and Wednesday for a rebuilt opening round.
Farewell to First Four
The 12 games for the 24 teams in the expanded NCAA Tournament will be labeled “the opening round” when the tournament expands in 2027. The “First Four” is dead, a source told CBS Sports.
The expanded opening round will be split between at-large teams and teams who have won automatic bids by winning their conference tournaments. All No. 16 seeds and half the No. 15 seeds will play games Tuesday and Wednesday of the opening round. The other half of the games will be a mix depending on team quality comprised of No. 11, No. 12 and maybe a No. 13 seed.
This breaking news story will be updated shortly.