NCAA President says goal is to expand March Madness to '72 or 76' teams in 2026

The field of 64 became the field of 68 in 2011. What’s next? Prepare for a field of 72 or 76 — that number still in question, but expansion no longer in doubt, according to NCAA President Charlie Baker.

Arriving in Orlando for the 2025 Big 12 Spring Meetings this week, Baker wasted no time addressing the future of March Madness, making it clear his goal is to expand the NCAA Tournament by 2026 with a four- or eight-team jump finalized as early as this summer.

It won’t be more than 76, but it sounds like it won’t be fewer than 72 if it unfolds the way Baker predicts.

“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.”

Baker’s comments come a day following Bill Self’s comments suggesting Big 12 coaches were in favor of expansion — a consensus within the league.

“The consensus among the coaches — even though it was discussed very little — was we’d be in favor of that,” Self said, according to KSL Sports.

Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports reports that a move to 72 or 76 teams in 2026 ‘has been an expectation for a year now’ after the expanded bracket possibilities were shown to Division I commissioners last June.

“NCAA officials continue to negotiate with TV partners on expansion with a hope to reach a deal by summer’s end,” he said.

ESPN’s Pete 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 May, Baker is ready to have that discussion as we enter the summer months.

What is the draw, in the NCAA president’s opinion, to expanding March Madness from 68 to 72 or 76 — likely the latter? It’s the fact that 34 automatic qualifiers leave deserving bubble teams out of the Big Dance as things currently stand. That number isn’t changing, so he’s comfortable increasing the total participants to allow some of the other ‘best teams in the country’ into the field.

“If you have a tournament that’s got 68 teams in it, you’re going to have a bunch of teams that are probably among what most people would consider be the best 68 or 70 teams in the country that aren’t going to make the tournament — period — because you get a whole bunch of people who win their conference tournaments who aren’t in that group,” Baker said. “So, the point behind going from 68 to 72 or 76 is to basically give some of those schools that probably were among the best teams in the country a way into the tournament.”

It’s a polarizing decision, to say the least — Jon Rothstein is calling for an open rally in Central Park to protest expansion — but it certainly sounds like that’s where this is trending.