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NCAA Tournament expansion: NCAA Senior VP of Basketball Dan Gavitt releases statement after meetings

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2025 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament logo
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Following men’s and women’s basketball committee meetings, NCAA senior VP of basketball Dan Gavitt confirmed tournament expansion talks took place. He also said no decisions were made, though also revealed what the “viable outcomes” are for March Madness’ future.

Gavitt said the field could stay in its current format with 68 teams, which starts with the First Four in Dayton. Other options include going up to 72 or 76 teams in time for the 2026 or 2027 tournaments, according to the statement.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel previously reported a decision could be coming “in the next few weeks” as the meetings approached. Ultimately, no decisions came down.

“The NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Committees met this week, with the men’s meeting taking place in Savannah and the women’s meeting in Philadelphia,” Gavitt wrote. “The topic of expanding the field for each championship was discussed at length, but no decision or recommendation was made. 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.”

During the Big 12’s spring meetings in May, NCAA president Charlie Baker said the goal would be to expand the tournament next year if that was the decision. He also confirmed the idea of a 72- or 76-team bracket being an option amid the conversations.

“That would be the goal — to try and do this for next year, which is why the window to actually negotiate it will probably end sometime early summer,” Baker told Front Office Sports’ David Rumsey. “… We’ve been talking about 72 and 76. Those have been the numbers the basketball committee’s talked about. It would obviously be one or the other, won’t be more.”

Following Baker’s comments, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said the idea of NCAA Tournament expansion didn’t come up much during his conference’s spring meetings in Destin. He said things “didn’t really go anywhere” other than a brief mention.

“I introduced the issue to our men’s basketball coaches, which I think we’ve talked about with that group before. I would guess then, given the other issues we had on our plate, that conversation maybe lasted five minutes,” Sankey said. “My points to them were, this is still a work in progress.

“I didn’t know that there was going to be kind of a press gathering. This is not a criticism. Charlie Baker spoke about tournament expansion, I think, the day after our basketball coaches gathered. I mentioned it to our women’s basketball coaches as well briefly. It didn’t really go anywhere.”