NCAA exec: No immediate get in touch with bigger tourney

Feb 28, 2025, 01:10 PM ET

The NCAA has actually not settled expansion plans for the men’s and ladies’s basketball tournaments and a choice is unlikely soon, NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said in a CBS Sports interview.Both tournaments currently have 68 teams. There has been talk of increasing the fields to 72 or 76 teams.Gavitt stated he doesn’t anticipate a vote in the future, though a late-spring vote might in theory make a change possible in 2026. He said modifications in game operation and travel are amongst the lots of things that would need to be accounted for.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated “It’s not taken in an easy going method at

all because of the success of the competitions and how crucial they are to college basketball overall,” Gavitt said. “Expansion, even in a modest level, is intricate, more complex than, I believe, than has actually been acknowledged and reported, since it is pricey.”This year’s March Madness will be the 40th men’s bracket considering that the field broadened to 64 teams in

1985. The females’s bracket increased to 64 groups in 1994. Gavitt said he isn’t sure whether the field should broaden however is more favorable about the possibility than he was a couple of years ago. NIL offers, conference adjustment and the transfer website have actually altered the dynamics. He stated men’s basketball, in specific, might be matched to manage it.”There’s no sport that is deeper general and has more parity than males’s college basketball, “he said. “There’s great basketball played at every level in men’s basketball right now. So I believe it’s important to keep the tournament contemporary and appropriate, based upon what is going on in college sports. “