For fans of the NCAA Tournament’s current 68-team format, brace for impact.
According to a report from Yahoo Sports and Ross Dellenger last week, the NCAA is “expected to finalize an expansion of the men’s and women’s tournaments to 76 teams soon after the completion of this year’s March Madness tournament.”
The report also states that a high-placed source told Dellenger that “it will happen,” barring something unforeseen standing in the way.
A 76-team field would see an addition of eight teams to the field. The idea behind adding the eight teams would increase the First Four round, which in this case is now being referred to as the opening round in the report. It would “feature 24 teams playing in 12 games over the two days at two sites (Dayton and another).” The 12 winners of the opening round would then move into the original bracket with the other 52 teams to get things back to the standard 64 entries.
According to Dellenger, this concept would mean that “eight teams are extracted from the main bracket, plus the eight new at-large selections from expansion.”
In 2022, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey told Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde that he was open to having a conversation about expanding the NCAA Tournament. Obviously, as seen by the last few tournaments, nothing came to fruition between then and now. But he did appear interested in at least having the conversation to see what might come up with the ideas.
Dellenger’s report specifically lists “leaders at the Big 12 and the ACC” as those who have “aggressively” pushed for tournament expansion.
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As in any given year, this season’s NCAA Tournament selection process saw fierce competition between the last teams that were awarded spots in the Big Dance. The final four spots went to NC State, Texas, SMU, and Miami (OH). The first four out, meanwhile, included Oklahoma, Auburn, San Diego State, and Indiana.
Texas defeated NC State in the First Four round, while Miami (OH) took care of business against SMU. The Longhorns wound up making a run to the Sweet 16 and fell just short of beating Purdue for a spot in the Elite Eight. It’s hard to specifically call the Longhorns a “Cinderella” with their vast resources, but they were the highest-seeded team to make it far. Miami (OH), on the other hand, was clobbered by Tennessee in the opening round.
According to Yahoo Sports, the first two rounds of the 2026 men’s NCAA Tournament saw massive television ratings. Both CBS Sports and TNT Sports announced record viewership in the Rounds of 64 and 32. The same two companies then sent out a press release soon after that the 2026 tournament was the most-watched tournament since 1993, averaging 10.3 million viewers.
With these kind of numbers, it’s easy to see why NCAA leadership and television networks want more games attatched on, however they can. The average fan watching from home may not see it the same way.
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