The NCAA's men's and women's basketball committees voted unanimously to expand the NCAA Tournament to 76 teams, effective immediately for the 2026-27 season.
The format will create 12 play-in games to get the field down to 64 for the opening round. The games will be played in Dayton, Ohio, where the play-ins were held this season, and a second city, to be determined, in a western location.
There are more committee approvals remaining before a Board of Governors final vote on May 22, but the initiative is expected to pass without issue.
The move was made not to be more inclusive for smaller programs or smaller conferences, but to appease the Power 4 schools, who were arguing that the large expansion of their conferences should yield greater tournament representation.
My take: Apparently there've been rumblings that the Power 4 conferences were considering abandoning the NCAA Tournament and creating one of their own, then offering invites to other teams outside the conferences to fill out the field. Expanding to 76 teams is a terrible idea, but this tournament is all the NCAA has left at this point and they'll do whatever they have to to keep it.
THE ASYLUM
NCAA tourney expands to 76 teams
The NCAA's men's and women's basketball committees voted unanimously to expand the NCAA Tournament to 76 teams, effective immediately for the 2026-27 season.
The format will create 12 play-in games to get the field down to 64 for the opening round. The games will be played in Dayton, Ohio, where the play-ins were held this season, and a second city, to be determined, in a western location.
There are more committee approvals remaining before a Board of Governors final vote on May 22, but the initiative is expected to pass without issue.
The move was made not to be more inclusive for smaller programs or smaller conferences, but to appease the Power 4 schools, who were arguing that the large expansion of their conferences should yield greater tournament representation.
My take: Apparently there've been rumblings that the Power 4 conferences were considering abandoning the NCAA Tournament and creating one of their own, then offering invites to other teams outside the conferences to fill out the field. Expanding to 76 teams is a terrible idea, but this tournament is all the NCAA has left at this point and they'll do whatever they have to to keep it.
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