No decision made on NCAA basketball tournament expansion following committee meetings
In a statement released on July 10, NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said that no decision has been made on tournament expansion after it was 'discussed at length' this week during meetings for the NCAA Division I men's and women's basketball committees.
Gavitt added that expanding the fields to 72 or 76 teams, or sticking with the current 68-team model, remain 'viable outcomes' in advance of either the 2026 or 2027 tournaments.
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The NCAA men's basketball tournament last expanded in 2011, when the advent of the First Four stretched the field from 65 to 68 teams. The NCAA women's tournament remained at 64 teams until 2022, when it also made the jump to 68 teams.
Should the tournament expand by eight to 76 teams, which ESPN reported last month is the more likely option, it would be the largest increase in tournament teams since 1985, when it went from a 53-team event to a 64-team one.
The discussion around tournament expansion has intensified this year. While speaking with reporters at a Big 12 meeting in May, NCAA president Charlie Baker said the NCAA had been having "good conversation" with its media partners about the possibility of increasing the number of teams in the field.
"Our goal here is to try to sort of get to either yes or no sometime in the next few months because there's a lot of logistical work that would be associated with doing this,' Baker said at the time. 'If we were to go down this road, you just think about the opening weekends, who has to travel the longest, it gets complicated."
Dan Gavitt statement on NCAA tournament expansion
Here's Gavitt's statement in full:
'The NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Committees met this week, with the men's meeting taking place in Savannah and the women's meeting in Philadelphia. The topic of expanding the field for each championship was discussed at length but no decision or recommendation was made. The still viable outcomes include the tournaments remaining at 68 teams or expanding the fields to either 72 or 76 teams in advance of the 2026 or 2027 championships.'
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