The NCAA announced Monday that the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will remain at 68 teams for the 2025-26 season, ending speculation about an imminent expansion to the March Madness fields. Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball, confirmed the decision in a statement that firmly closed the door on changes for this season.
“Expanding the tournament fields is no longer being contemplated for the 2026 men’s and women’s basketball championships,” Gavitt said. “However, the committees will continue conversations on whether to recommend expanding to 72 or 76 teams in advance of the 2027 championships.”
Discussions around expansion have gathered momentum in recent months, with growing support from within major conferences and select NCAA officials. Ideas floated publicly included increasing the field to either 72 or 76 teams, which would likely bring in more at-large bids from power conferences, rather than opening up additional spots for mid-majors or automatic qualifiers.
NCAA president Charlie Baker addressed the matter last month, noting that the primary hurdle to any near-term expansion would be logistical. With less than eight months until the next tournament tips off, the NCAA determined that timelines and tournament infrastructure—including scheduling, venues, broadcasting, and bracket format—would make an expansion impractical for 2026.
Currently, the 68-team format includes four “First Four” games held before the first round. Two of those matchups involve No. 16 seeds—usually automatic qualifiers from lower-rated conferences—while the other two games typically feature at-large teams seeded around the 11 or 12 lines. The format has produced memorable runs in recent years, most notably UCLA’s journey to the Final Four in 2021 after emerging from a First Four game as an 11-seed.
While some advocates for expansion argue it would help more deserving teams from top conferences get in, critics worry it could dilute the drama and competitive balance of March Madness. Mid-major programs, in particular, have expressed concerns that additional at-large spots would primarily benefit schools from the power conferences, making it even harder for underdogs to participate.
The NCAA basketball committees for both the men’s and women’s tournaments will continue to explore the pros and cons of expansion, but for now, the iconic format that fuels one of the nation’s most beloved sporting events will remain untouched—at least for one more year.
