Report: NCAA expected to make final decision on March Madness expansion for 2026 in next few weeks

Will the NCAA Tournament expand beyond the current format to include more teams? We should know soon enough.

According to a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the decision or whether to expand the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments for 2026 “is expected to come in the next few weeks.” Thamel notes that the expansion would be to no more than 76 schools, which would be a maximum increase of eight new teams from the current format.

Thamel also notes that the NCAA remains engaged in talks with its media partners over any potential changes. That’s no surprise, as the primary driver in any decision is likely to be maximizing viewership and revenue.

The last major expansion to the NCAA Tournament field came in 2011. At that point, the field expanded from 64 teams to 68 teams. That brought about the advent of the play-in game.

NCAA president Charlie Baker has been vocal about his desire to expand the field. He spoke at the Big 12 spring meetings about that aim.

“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 reporter 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.”

The expectation broadly in the sport has been that expansion will happen. Whether that’s 72 or 76 remains to be seen, but the wheels appear to be in motion to make it happen.

Thamel reported back in February that the ‘more likely option if the tournament were to expand would be to 76’ teams. That discussion, at the time, would come ‘in the next few months.’

Now, in late June, it appears the NCAA and its partners are close to reaching some sort of consensus on the way forward. When exactly things will be finalized remains to be seen.

On3’s Jack Pilgrim also contributed to this report.