NCAA confirms decision on March Madness expansion

After months of discussion, a decision have finally been announced. The NCAA has opted not to expand its annual basketball tournaments beyond 68 teams this season, but hinted that growth in future in still possible.

The news came on Monday via Dan Gavitt, senior vice president of basketball for the NCAA. Earlier this year there had been talk of increasing the number of entries to 72 or even 76 teams.

“Expanding the tournament fields is no longer being contemplated for the 2026 men’s and women’s basketball championships,” Gavitt said.

But Gavitt did go on to say: “However, the committees will continue conversations on whether to recommend expanding to 72 or 76 teams in advance of the 2027 championships.”

Much of the momentum for the proposed has economic roots, given the enormous commercial draw of the men’s and female basketball competitions. March Madness is considered one of the biggest television draws in the sport calendar and an increase in the number of teams would likely increase the number of games.

Currently CBS and Warner Bros. hold the rights for the NCAA basketball competitions. Their deal runs through 2032 and is worth around $1.1 billion per year. If organizers want to boost their potential deals ahead of the next renewal date a batch of extra fixtures could certainly help to push up the offer.

However there is also an argument around fairness, with some officials questionable the current competition structure. One such voice was that of NCAA president Charlie Baker, who pointed out that the current system can mean that some of the stronger teams miss out.

“If you have a tournament that’s got 64 or 68 teams in it, you’re going to have a bunch of teams that are probably among what most people would consider to be the best 68 or 70 teams in the country that aren’t going to make the tournament, period,” Baker explained last month.

“The point behind going from 68 to 72 or 76 is to basically give some of those schools that were probably among the 72, 76, 68, 64 best teams in the country a way into the tournament.”

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