NCAA Tournament to expand to 76 teams, add more play-in games

March Madness is poised for another expansion, and the extra room appears aimed less at mid-majors than at the bubble schools trying to squeeze into the field. The men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments are expected to grow from 68 teams to 76 starting with the 2026-27 season, a change that would add eight more at-large bids and turn the opening round into a much larger gatekeeper for the bracket.

Under the reported format, the First Four would swell from four games to 12, with 24 teams sent to two opening-round sites before the tournament settles back to a 64-team main bracket. Dayton, Ohio, is expected to remain one of those sites, while the other is expected to sit west of the Eastern Time Zone. The move would give more schools a path into the tournament, but it would also increase the number of teams forced to survive an extra round before the traditional Thursday start of the event.

That is the heart of the argument over what March Madness should reward. Supporters say expansion broadens access, especially for at-large teams from power conferences that often live on the wrong side of the bubble. Opponents argue that a larger field weakens the regular season, stretches the meaning of making the tournament and waters down the scarcity that has made Selection Sunday such a pressure point for fans and schools alike. The Big 12 Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference have been described as leading conference voices behind the push.

NCAA president Charlie Baker has already said he would like to see the tournament expand, though the NCAA has said no final recommendations or decisions had been made when asked about the issue. The plan is expected to be formally approved in May, setting up the change for the next championship cycle. ESPN has reported that the primary driver is access rather than money, though the added inventory would still bring a modest financial upside after additional logistics and tournament units are accounted for.

If approved, it would be the first NCAA Tournament expansion since 2011, when the men’s field moved from 65 to 68 teams. Before that, the men’s bracket held at 64 or 65 teams from 1985 through 2010, after the sport’s biggest jump in 1985, when it doubled from 32 to 64. This next step would not just widen the bracket. It would redefine who gets rewarded for a season’s work, and who is left fighting for one more chance just to reach the real tournament.