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Washington Post
04-08-2025
- Sport
- Washington Post
NCAA Tournament fields to remain at 68 teams in 2026, but future growth is possible
The NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments will not expand beyond 68 teams in 2026, but future growth remains on the radar. 'Expanding the tournament fields is no longer being contemplated for the 2026 men's and women's basketball championships,' Dan Gavitt, NCAA senior vice president of basketball, said in a statement on Monday. 'However, the committees will continue conversations on whether to recommend expanding to 72 or 76 teams in advance of the 2027 championships.'
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
March Madness is unmatched. NCAA Tournament expansion will cheapen product
Tournament expansion sits squarely as the biggest item on the agenda as the NCAA Division I men's basketball committee meets in Savannah, Georgia. Any hour now, there could be an announcement that the nation's best championship sporting event, the NCAA Tournament, will be adding an additional four or eight teams. For some reason, it seems like they're clamoring to make college basketball like college football. Advertisement The Football Bowl Subdivision watered down its game with the proliferation of so many bowl games. A team that goes 6-6 is now rewarded with a trip, sometimes bowl rings for the winners, all for finishing the regular season without a losing record. What helped make the tournament's popularity explode and what turned March into madness was because it was not like college football. It was watching schools many viewers had never heard of, like St. Peter's in 2022, knock off historical giants like Kentucky. NCAA Tournament expansion ultimately won't ruin the collective love for the Big Dance, but that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. Far from it. It should be tougher to make the tournament, not easier. Advertisement As of last season there were 35 bowl games played that were not involved in the College Football Playoff. That means 70 of 134 (52%) teams competing in the Football Bowl Subdivision made the postseason. One of the arguments present for expanding is that Division I basketball now has 364 schools. That's about 80 more schools than there were full time in Division I back in 1985 when the tournament expanded to 64 teams. Bellarmine was among a recent wave of schools reclassifying to Division I. The Knights are not a reason to expand. Had it not been for the NCAA's arbitrary transition period making them ineligible, they would have already participated in the Big Dance having won the 2022 Atlantic Sun Conference tournament. The list of new Division I schools hasn't created a plethora of new conferences taking away automatic bids. And they haven't added much in terms of winning to the mix either. According to CBS Sports, Division I schools added since 1985 have won only 19 games in the first round or later out of 2,520 games played. Advertisement A less publicly stated reason for expansion is about revenue. The NCAA could ask for a bump in its broadcast rights for more games and, in turn, pass those earnings on to the participants. A few coaches that live on the hot seat can tout making the tournament and survive another year. But those added games aren't likely to bring any added excitement. So, please forgive me if I can't get behind the expansion talk. I can't be too thrilled that a team like Ohio State, which finished 17-15 last season and was one of the first four out, will be receiving a bid if the field increases to at least 72 teams. There will be collateral damage, too. Advertisement Although the men's basketball committee is doing the voting, the women's basketball tournament will follow suit, if approved. As much as the women's game is evolving and growing, there is not an extra four or more worthy teams each season that should get bids to the tournament. Since the First Four was introduced in the women's tournament in 2022, only one of the eight teams that advanced to the round of 64 has won a game. Mississippi State won in 2023 as an 11 seed, toppling No. 6 seed Creighton, before losing to No. 3 seed Notre Dame in the second round. There has been no team like UCLA that went from an 11 seed in the 2021 First Four to the Final Four. Advertisement As it stands, the gap is still incredibly wide between the top seeds and those that sneak into the women's tournament. Expanding it will just make for more meaningless and unwatchable games. Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@ follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at to make sure you never miss one of his columns. This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: NCAA Tournament expansion would hurt college basketball, March Madness
New York Times
10-07-2025
- Business
- New York Times
NCAA Tournament expansion still undecided as hoops leaders continue to examine options
No decision was made Thursday on whether to expand the fields for the NCAA Division I basketball tournaments as the committees that oversee March Madness wrapped up summer meetings that included discussions about potential expansion plans. '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,' NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said. Advertisement With the 2026 tournaments a little more than eight months out, the chance of anything changing next year seem to be waning. The tournament field has been set at 68 teams since 2011, when the First Four games played on Tuesday and Wednesday were added to the iconic 64-team bracket. The women's tournament similarly expanded to 68 teams in 2022. The only thing that appears to be standing in the way of expansion is making the finances work. NCAA officials, led by Gavitt, have been working with television partners CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery to find ways through sponsorship opportunities to generate the revenue necessary to cover the cost of adding more teams and staging more games. The NCAA's rights deal with CBS and WBD pays the association more than $1 billion annually and runs through 2032, but the networks are under no obligation to increase the rights fee for a bigger tournament. The CBS/WBD deal accounts for the vast majority of the NCAA's annual revenue, most of which is distributed back to member schools through their conferences. Millions of dollars are distributed yearly based on the number of teams a conference places in the men's tournament and how those teams perform. A similar performance fund has been established for women's basketball after the NCAA signed an eight-year, $920 million rights deal with ESPN in 2024 that includes the women's Division I tournament. For smaller conferences, NCAA basketball-related distributions are often the biggest source of revenue for their schools. With schools now permitted to directly pay athletes north of $20 million dollars as part of a landmark lawsuit settlement, the need for revenue at all levels of Division I has never been greater. Expansion is unlikely to provide financial windfall for the NCAA and its schools, but it would have been a non-starter if it didn't at least pay for itself. Advertisement This push to expand has been more about participation, and it started with a recommendation in 2023 by the Division I transformation committee to adjust the fields for all NCAA postseason championships to include at least 25% of schools that participate in a given sport. As of this past school year, the 68-team basketball tournament field represented 19 percent of the 355 Division I schools. Division I is expected to grow to more than 360 schools over the next year. While many mid-major conferences hope a bigger tournament field will lead to a few extra bids, the recently expanded power conferences expect to benefit most from the added at-large berths. The SEC set a record last season when 14 of its 16 teams made the men's bracket. For the last 15 years, the men's tournament has started with doubleheaders on Tuesday and Wednesday night on the campus of the University of Dayton. The four lowest ranked automatic-qualifying conference champions are matched in two of the games, and the last four teams to receive at-large bids face-off in the other two. The 68-team field has consisted of 32 automatic qualifiers — one from every Division I conference — and 36 at-large bids chosen by the men's basketball committee. Another expansion of the field would be expected to add onto the Tuesday and Wednesday slates with a similar breakdown of automatic qualifying teams from small conferences and at-large selections participating. While the power conferences would prefer to have their teams avoid the play-in round, TV networks want some of those teams playing on those nights to boost viewership. Expansion would involve building out the opening rounds with an additional site or sites to go with Dayton and help alleviate the travel burden for teams that advance from those games. The basketball committee was presented with various options to consider.
