NCAA won’t expand March Insanity fields in ’26

The men’s and females’s NCAA basketball tournaments will not be expanding beyond 68 groups this season, however future development remains on the radar, NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt announced Monday.

“Expanding the tournament fields is no longer being pondered for the 2026 males’s and females’s basketball championships,” Gavitt stated in a declaration. “However, the committees will continue discussions on whether to suggest broadening to 72 or 76 groups in advance of the 2027 championships.”

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The concept of expanding the tournament to either 72 or 76 groups had actually picked up steam in the spring.NCAA president Charlie Baker said last month that the biggest difficulty for competition expansion– particularly one that would take place in less than eight months– is logistics. “The tournament has to begin after the conference

championships are over,” he said.”And right now Choice Sunday occurs like two hours after the last tournament game ends and needs to end up by the Tuesday before the Masters. There’s not a lot of room there. Any expansion, we’re going to need to determine how to put it in and then logistically how to make it work.” Baker has actually said including groups could add value to the tournament,

and he stated the NCAA currently has had”good conversations”with TV partners CBS and Warner Bros., whose deal runs through 2032 at the expense of around$1.1 billion a year.The NCAA Competition expanded from 64 to 68 groups in 2011. The change presented the First 4 round

, a set of pre-tournament games in which the 4 lowest-seeded at-large groups and four lowest-seeded conference champs contend for areas in the conventional 64-team bracket.Baker showed in Might that the existing formula has flaws and said it would be helpful to give more opportunities to deserving

groups.”If you have a tournament that’s got 64 or 68 teams in it, you’re going to have a bunch of groups that are most likely among what many people would think about to be the best 68 or 70 teams in the country that aren’t going to make the tournament, period,” Baker said then.”The point behind going from 68 to 72 or 76 is to generally offer a few of those schools that were most likely among the 72, 76, 68, 64 best teams in the country a way into the tournament. “Coaches have actually expressed various opinions about a broadened bracket. Tom Izzo, Nate Oats and Dan Hurley have actually suggested they like the field at 68 but

Texas coach Sean Miller told CBS Sports he wouldn’t mind expansion. “Never previously has the competition felt more even, with couple of exceptions, “Miller said. “On any given night in a 40-minute game, it’s just remarkable what can occur.

I believe including depth to that will just make what’s currently great even better. “SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey stated the league backs expansion”however you simply do not jump into it.”” So, if there are reasons from a broadcast point, a monetary point, logistics point or competitive realities that do not support expansion, once again, we’re going to be great, “he said at SEC football media days last month.” But I think this is the right direction to at least explore.” Kansas coach Bill Self stated fellow Huge 12 coaches appear to favor an NCAA tourney growth. The Huge 12 had 7 bids in 2025, half the overall of the SEC.” There was a bit that was produced and the agreement among the coaches, even though it was extremely bit, would be in favor of that,”he stated earlier this year.”I don’t understand if you might make it where it was totally equitable all the way across the board for everybody.” The Associated Press added to this report.