Could College basketball fans experience more March Madness as early as 2026? NCAA president Charlie Baker feels optimistic about it.
Baker was at the Big 12 spring meetings on Thursday. While there, he discussed that conversations are ongoing with March Madness broadcast partners — CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery — about possibly expanding the men’s tournament as soon as 2026. David Rumsey of Front Office Sports reported that the conversations are for the NCAA Tournament to expand to either 72 or 76 teams.
“We’ve had good conversations with CBS and WBD,” Baker said, per Rumsey’s report. “Our goal here is to try to either get to yes or no sometime in the next few months, because there’s a lot of logistical work that would be associated with doing this, if we were to go down this road.”
Citing Baker, Rumsey confirmed that if initiated, the change would be made for March Madness in 2026. Baker also offered a timeline as to when we’ll know if the change will take place.
“That would be the goal—to try and do this for next year, which is why the window to actually negotiate it will probably end sometime early summer,” Baker said, via Rumsey.
The NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams from 53 in 1985. The tournament has kept a similar format over the last 40 years, with two minor additions being made along the way. In 2001, March Madness expanded to 65 teams, adding an “Opening Round” matchup. That remained the format until 2011, when the current 68-team bracket was implemented.
The 2025 men’s tournament confirmed that there is still great interest in March Madness — and not just in the later rounds. The opening weekend of the 2025 tournament produced record viewership totals. Additionally, from a competitive standpoint, the 2025 NCAA Tournament featured arguably the most notable snub of all time in West Virginia, who controversially missed the tournament despite being on the bracket of all 111 bracketologists.
So, this is a particularly good year to have the March Madness expansion conversation.
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