The NCAA is moving forward with plans to expand both its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments to 76 teams, a change that would widen the gate for power conferences while pushing more teams, more travel, and more costs onto the tournament machine. ESPN reported Tuesday, citing sources, that the proposal is nearing formal approval, with an announcement possible as soon as next month and the larger field potentially in place before the 2026-27 season.
Michigan’s men’s basketball team secured its first national title in more than 30 years earlier this month, and one day earlier UCLA’s women’s team claimed its first NCAA Tournament crown. Both teams won through a 64-team bracket, the current setup that the NCAA now wants to stretch further. The expansion has been on the table for more than a year, and a source told ESPN the remaining steps before approval are merely "formalities." That is how the apparatus talks when the decision has already been made in all but name.
Who Has the Power
Several hurdles remain with NCAA committees before any changes can become official, but the real machinery is already in motion. Media rights deals remain unfinished, and signed contracts will likely be needed before the men’s and women’s basketball committees, oversight groups and other parties move forward. ESPN reported that NCAA officials have recently engaged in discussions with key media partners. The people and institutions at the top are still sorting out the paperwork, while the athletes and schools below are expected to absorb the consequences.
An NCAA spokesperson told OutKick's Trey Wallace, "Expanding the basketball tournaments would require approval from multiple NCAA committees, including the men’s and women’s basketball committees, and no final recommendations or decisions have been made at this time." That is the official language of delay and control: committees, approvals, recommendations, decisions. The hierarchy speaks in procedure while the structure keeps expanding.
Who Pays for the Expansion
While the financial framework for expansion is still unclear, costs are expected to rise with more teams traveling and competing. A source told ESPN the plan could still ultimately produce profit and a "modest financial upside." In other words, the bill grows first, and the upside is promised later, if the numbers cooperate. The tournament remains a business arrangement dressed up as tradition, with the burden of added travel and competition falling on the teams that are invited into the bigger machine.
Expansion discussions appear to be fueled more by the push for at-large bids for power conferences than by financial considerations. Many leagues have added a considerable number of schools under the current agreement. That means the push is not simply about more basketball; it is about making room for the already powerful, the conferences with the leverage to demand more seats at the table.
What the New Bracket Means
Currently, the First Four features eight teams across four games. Under expansion, that would grow to 12 games involving 24 teams, with the men’s tournament adding eight at-large bids. Overall, the proposal would mean the First Four would see 24 of those 76 teams competing Tuesday and Wednesday. Eight teams that once would have been in the customary bracket would now face eight new at-large teams. The main 64-team bracket would still tip off Thursday with little change.
So the center of the show stays intact, but the margins get crowded and the gatekeepers get more room to sort winners and losers. The bracket grows, the committees keep their authority, and the media partners remain part of the negotiations. The official story is expansion. The structure underneath is the same old hierarchy, just with more teams squeezed into it.