The greatest single-elimination tournament in America may be expanding to the number of teams that coincides with America’s birth year.
On3’s Ross Dellenger reports that, while an agreement is not yet finalized, NCAA executives are inching toward one that will see a move from 68 teams in the March Madness field to 76 — not the 72 that had been previously discussed. That structure would lead to eight additional games in the Big Dance, starting in 2026-27, just one season away from now.
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“This new opening round features 24 teams playing in 12 games over the two days, with six games each at two sites (Dayton, the current home of the First Four, plus another likely more basketball-centric Western location),” Dellenger says. “Those involved in the negotiations caution that plenty of this could change through the course of continuing talks with TV partners Warner Bros. Discovery and CBS. For now, this is the plan.”
The new format will include 12 lower-seeded automatic qualifiers and 12 at-large selections with eight extracted from the main bracket and eight at-large picks added thanks to the expansion, now adding a play-in game to reach the field of 64.
Don’t worry. If you’re confused, you’re not alone.
But hey, more basketball in March Madness? I’m not saying no to that.
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NCAA president Charlie Baker wants all 32 automatic qualifiers to get in like always, but others on the bubble and just outside are deserving, too.
“There are every year some really good teams that don’t get to the tournament for a bunch of reasons,” he said. “One of the reasons is we have 32 automatic qualifiers (for conference champions). I love that and think it’s great and never want that to change, but that means there’s only 36 slots left for everybody else. I don’t buy the idea that some of the teams that currently get left out aren’t good. I think they are. And I think that sucks.”
It will be interesting to see how this new format looks in 2026-2027 if it comes to fruition.
