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Jeff Borzello
multiple authors
It’s finally official: The NCAA is Expanding men’s and women’s basketball tournaments The new zones of 76 by eight teams are set to come into effect with immediate effect from this upcoming season.
Of the 68 teams in last season’s tournaments, 31 had automatic bids – each conference receives one team – and 37 had at-large bids, chosen by selection committees based on various metrics. The increase to 76 teams means there will now be 44 at-large bids handed out, with 32 automatic bids required due to the withdrawal of the Pac-12.
This is the first expansion for the men’s tournament since 2011, when it expanded from 65 to 68 teams. This is the largest expansion since 1985, when the field doubled from 32 to 64 teams.
The women’s tournament recently moved, bringing it to 68 teams in 2022. Since 1994 it has been a 64-team field, having increased incrementally over the decade since the first NCAA women’s basketball tournament in 1982 (played with 32 teams).
The latest expansion begs the question: What does this mean for the game of college basketball? Here’s everything you need to know.
How will the eight additional teams be divided?
The first four are out, the preliminary round has begun. Instead of eight teams playing four games for a chance to advance to the round of 64, there will now be 24 teams playing 12 such games. Half of the said teams will be the lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers, the other will be the lowest-seeded major teams.
The NCAA will visually introduce the new Opening Round at the top of the bracket, with the winners feeding into the classic 64-team field.
The 76-team bracket will look like this: pic.twitter.com/BmJsJZ7pOY
– Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) 7 May 2026
When and where will the new ‘Opening Round’ take place?
On the men’s side, 12 games will be played between Selection Sunday on Tuesday and Wednesday when the round of 64 begins that Thursday. Instead of scheduling two games each day in Dayton, as is the case with the First Four, there will be three games each day in Dayton and three games each day in another city that has not yet been determined. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reports that the second site is expected to be west of the Eastern Time Zone to help with logistics.
On the women’s side, 12 preliminary round games will be played between the Sunday selections on Wednesday and Thursday and when the round of 64 begins that Friday – and at 12 campus sites designated as hosts for the first and second rounds.
What does this mean for the bubble and potential Cinderellas?
The bubble will become larger, giving more teams a chance to advance to the tournament in the final stages of the season, partially by reducing some of the “bubble elimination” games we have seen during Champ Week, when teams often go head-to-head for an at-large bid. And the biggest beneficiaries of the expansion will undoubtedly be the power conferences.
With the realignment, we have already seen teams that finish in the middle of the pack make the field, which will happen more often and garner more bids. For example, an Auburn team that finished 7–11 in the SEC and 17–16 overall was one of the first four teams in last season’s tournament; The Tigers would have received a bid if the field had been expanded.
There may be room for one or two other mid-major teams, especially ones that dominate the season but lose early in their conference tournaments (i.e. Indiana State in 2024) or those that have flashy records and impressive metrics but don’t have the marquee wins of power-conference teams (i.e. Miami of Ohio in 2026).
However, the bottom line: After a 2025 men’s tournament in which zero teams seeded lower than 12 advanced to the second round and only one double-digit seed in the 2026 men’s tournament reaching the Sweet 16 — and a 2025 women’s tournament that featured zero teams seeded lower than 10 — the Cinderellas could face an even more difficult climb into the expanded field.
VCU athletic director Ed McLaughlin Told ESPN in 2024 He’s worried about what the expansion of small schools that captivate the country each March will do.
“Without those magic [upset] In moments, the NCAA Tournament is not magic,” said McLaughlin, whose Rams upset North Carolina in overtime of their first-round matchup before losing in the second round last March. “Does greed kill the golden goose? Greed destroys many things.”
How will this affect the tournament’s broadcast partners?
As far as broadcast rights go, both media rights agreements – CBS and Turner for the men; ESPN for women – scheduled to end in 2032. CBS Sports and Turner agreed to eight year extension Valued at $8.8 billion in 2016. ESPN and NCAA reached out eight year deal last September for the rights to 40 NCAA championships, including the women’s basketball tournament, worth $115 million annually.
There are no indications that there have been any significant changes to any of the agreements in view of the expansion of the tournament.
Why expand the tournament? Now?
Plans for this expansion had been bubbling beneath the surface in recent years, while college athletics struggled with College Football Playoff expansion and conference realignment. It was revived in January 2023, when the NCAA Division I Board of Directors became Approved the recommendation of a transition committee NCAA tells men’s basketball committee to expand championship events for all sports by summer to include 25% of teams had discussed Expansion of area.
NCAA Expansion plans presented to Division I conference commissioners in the summer of 2024, including options to expand the field to 72 or 76 teams, and NCAA President Charlie Baker. said last may That he saw value in the move.
“The idea behind going from 68 to 72 or 76 is to basically give a spot in the tournament to some of those schools that were maybe the 72, 76, 68, 64 best teams in the country,” Baker said this time last year.
The commissioners of the nation’s largest conferences have long had an eye on expansion, which could indicate who stands to benefit most from the change. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips have both expressed support for the idea in recent years.
“If the last team can win a national championship, and they’re in the 30s or 40s by RPI or [NCAA] From the NET’s perspective, is our current approach supporting a national championship contest?” Sankey told Sports Illustrated In 2022. “I think there’s health in that conversation. It doesn’t exclude people. It’s like: How do we include people in these annual national celebrations of who becomes a national champion?”
Phillips, “More Access, More Opportunities for More Young Men and Women.” told espn a few months later. “There are a lot of positives to this.”
NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt told CBS Sports Said in an interview earlier this year that recent changes in college athletics – i.e., the introduction of post-zero revenue sharing, the rise of the transfer portal and the impact of conference realignment – have made growth more viable.
He said, “There is no sport that is deeper overall and has more parity than men’s college basketball.” “There is great basketball played at every level in men’s basketball right now. So I think it’s important to keep the tournament contemporary and relevant based on what’s going on in college athletics.”
In NCAA announcementIt highlighted two key factors: greater championship access and financial incentives for student-athletes. More teams in tournaments means more money for conferences, which means more money for schools – and more attention to the game.
This, and the approval of a 32-game schedule, might affect how coaches manage their teams before and during the tournament?
This will not change much in terms of roster management and minutes distribution, as most teams are still playing the same number of NCAA Tournament games with the same amount of rest as in previous NCAA Tournaments. As voted on last year, adding a 32nd regular season game would impact non-conference scheduling at the beginning of each campaign and thus should not dramatically impact the season before the tournament. However, this could increase the chances of non-conference performance in January and February.
For example, Duke played Michigan last February and will face Gonzaga in Detroit next February. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see more teams add these types of games to relieve the fatigue of conference play and prepare for potential NCAA Tournament opponents.
