NCAA Tournament expansion is currently on hold

The Big Dance is a favorite postseason event for many, many sports fans. Most of those hate the word expansion. Almost everyone on social media does not want this postseason format touched. Many still aren’t a big fan of the last expansion that stretched the field to 68 teams and includes four play-in games in Dayton.

But executives in college sports have recently made a big push to expand the play-in tournament. The field of 64 will not be touched but more bubble teams would be invited to participate in play-in games.

Despite a lot of discussion, we are currently at an impasse.

There will be no NCAA Tournament expansion for either the men’s or women’s tournament…yet.

Sources: The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball committees have finished meeting this week and did not come to a decision or make a recommendation on tournament expansion. All options remain on the table, and discussions are continuing. pic.twitter.com/sEFFdbRjKs

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) July 10, 2025

ESPN’s Pete Thamel first reported on Thursday that the committees for both tournaments have finished meetings and no final decision has been made. As with almost everything else in college athletics — the College Football Playoff for example — this is going to linger.

“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,” NCAA senior VP of basketball Dan Gavitt wrote in a release. “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.”

There are multiple options on the table for the NCAA Tournament, but for now, the tournament is sticking at 68 teams. Regardless, when action officially gets started on Thursday in the future, nothing is scheduled to change. The possible alteration is with the First Four potentially adding a couple more games.

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