The NCAA is expanding its basketball tournaments for the first time in 15 years, adding eight teams to each bracket and creating a new opening round that will inject a dozen games into the earliest days of March Madness.
Starting next season, both the men's and women's tournaments will feature 76 teams instead of 68. The eight new squads in each bracket will compete in 12 games during what the NCAA is renaming the "March Madness Opening Round," replacing the current First Four format. Winners advance to the traditional 64-team bracket that tips off Thursday for men and Friday for women.
NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee Chairman Keith Gill said the restructuring strikes a balance between expanding opportunities and preserving the tournament's familiar structure. "It's a nice way to create some access but make sure we have the bracket we all love when we start Thursday at noon," he said.
The expansion comes as college basketball undergoes seismic shifts. The ACC has grown from nine teams to 17 since 1996, and the SEC set a men's tournament record two years ago by placing 14 teams in the bracket. Last season, the Big Ten sent nine. Power conference dominance is only expected to grow, with most new tournament slots going to teams from major leagues.
Schools will benefit directly from the move. The NCAA projects distributing more than $131 million in fresh revenue to tournament participants, funded partly by expanded television advertising opportunities for alcohol that were previously limited. The rights agreement itself will gain an average of $50 million per year over six years, though the men's tournament TV deal, currently valued at $8.8 billion through 2032, is not expected to see substantial increases from the modest addition of games.
Negotiations between the NCAA and broadcasters CBS and TNT slowed the expansion decision. Both networks are themselves navigating ownership changes that complicated the process.
The decision also reflects a broader challenge facing the sport. Mid-major programs with talented rosters have watched players flee to well-funded Power Four schools offering revenue-sharing compensation. Adding more bracket spots may help retain recruits in smaller programs and stave off potential fragmentation of the tournament itself, a concern acknowledged by leaders of the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC. Those conferences recognize that mid-major success strengthens the tournament's overall appeal, even as they consolidate their own control.
Proposals for more aggressive expansion, such as jumping to 96 teams, would require adding a full week to the tournament schedule. The current six-round, three-week structure has remained largely intact since 1985, with only minor adjustments, the last coming in 2011 when the bracket grew to 68. Extending that timeline would fundamentally alter the tournament's rhythm and fan engagement.
Author James Rodriguez: "This feels like the NCAA threading a needle it should've threaded years ago, buying goodwill with mid-majors while keeping the real money unchanged."
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