No Decision on Expanding NCAA Tournament

FOR NOW, the NCAA Tournament will stay at 68 teams, although that is still subject to change in the coming years.

After meeting this week, the men’s and women’s basketball committee met to discuss possible expansion but no decisions or recommendations were agreed upon. ESPN’s Peter Thamel reports that although nothing was agreed upon all options remain on the table, and discussions are continuing.

In a statement, Dan Gavitt, the NCAA senior vice president of basketball said- “The still-viable outcomes include the tournaments remaining at 68 teams or expanding the fields to either 72 or 76 teams in advance of the 2026 or 2027 championships.”

Expanding the field is always a popular topic around tournament time and it was talked about even more when NCAA President Charles Baker talked this year about the possible benefits of adding more teams.

Back in 2011, the NCAA field was expanded from 64 to 68 teams with the creation of the First Four. The NCAA women’s tournament expanded to 68 teams in 2022.

There is no deadline to make this important decision also in a recent interview with Yahoo Sports, Baker said that a decision on whether or not to expand the tournaments for 2026 needs to be made by the middle of August.

This story initially appeared on our partner site Pittsburgh Sports Now.

For a related story, EA Sports is working on a new college basketball video game.