The NCAA Tournament will be expanding to 76 teams beginning with the 2026-27 season for both men’s and women’s basketball, according to Matt Norlander of CBS Sports. Norlander reports that there wasn’t a single vote against expansion.
The NCAA had been considering expansion from 68 teams, and just two weeks ago, it was reported that it was likely that would happen before the start of next season. Now, NCAA officials have voted to finalize the expansion, agreeing with the media partners of the tournament on updated media contracts.
In the expanded tournament, eight teams will be added to what was called the “First Four” play-in round, and will now include 24 teams playing 12 games over two days. The winners of those games will move on to join the 52 teams that will already be in the traditional first round held the Thursday and Friday after Selection Sunday.
The first 12 games will take place the Tuesday and Wednesday after Selection Sunday.
The opening round will include both at-large opponents and automatic bids from conference tournament winners. All of the 16 seeds and half of the 15 seeds will be in the first 24 teams while the final 12 teams will be a mixture of 11, 12 and possibly 13 seeds.
