The word “expansion” is getting a workout when discussing college athletics these days. It was used again this week, as NCAA president Charlie Baker told reporters at the Big 12 spring meetings that expansion could be coming to the beloved March Madness tournament.
According to multiple reports, Baker told media members that a top priority at the Big 12 spring meetings was to discuss possible expansion of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Currently, March Madness has a 68-team bracket, which includes four “play-in” games.
Change could come as early as the 2026-27 college basketball season if those in charge can get the ball rolling.
“That would be the goal, to try and do this for next year,” Baker said, per David Rumsey of Front Office Sports. “We’ve been talking about 72 and 76 (teams).”
It’s not a massive change in terms of numbers, but an expanded field would seem only to reward mediocrity. But, in today’s age of television network deals and conference superiority battles, everyone is trying to get their hands on as much cash as possible.
Although no changes are expected for the 2025-26 NCAA Basketball Tournament, Baker said that decisions must be made soon in order to plan for March Madness in 2027.
“Our goal here is to try to sort of 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,” he said, per Matt Murschel of the Orlando Sentinel.
Baker also acknowledged that there has been no discussion past 72 or 76 teams in the NCAA Tournament, at least for now.
For any changes to be made to the NCAA Tournament, they must be approved by the NCAA men’s basketball committee. That group is scheduled to meet in July, per Sports Illustrated.
The last time the March Madness field expanded was in 2011, when the NCAA Tournament increased from a 65-team field to a 68-team bracket.
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