A report on Tuesday claims the NCAA has begun to take the final steps to expand the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments to 76 teams. If approved, the change would take effect during the upcoming college basketball season.
Sources told ESPN that the expansion to 76 teams is expected to be formalized in the upcoming weeks and announced sometime in mid-May.
One of the sources informed ESPN that while approvals are still needed from various NCAA committees, they are “just formalities” and the NCAA already has what it needs to make the change happen.
“Expanding the basketball tournaments would require approval from multiple NCAA committees, including the men’s and women’s basketball committees, and no final recommendations or decisions have been made at this time,” the NCAA said in a statement.
One of the steps the NCAA still must finalize before it can expand to 76 teams is signing the media contracts for the college basketball tournaments.
“Once the contracts are completed, the NCAA also would need approval from various committees that include the men’s and women’s basketball committees, the men’s and women’s basketball oversight committees, the Division I cabinet and the Division I board of governors,” Pete Thamel of ESPN reported.
Once approved, the First Four opening round, currently hosted in Dayton, Ohio, would be expected to expand from four games to twelve, with an extra host city, and eight more at-large teams added to the tournament.
How do college basketball fans feel about expanding the tournament to 76 teams?
While the addition of eight teams to the NCAA basketball tournaments won’t mean much in the way of additional income, it will mean that power conferences could get at-large bids. They have reportedly been the ones pushing for the expansion.
College basketball fans, on the other hand, aren’t all excited about adding another eight teams to an already watered-down field.
“Why won’t anyone listen to the very large group of people that don’t want this?” one fan wrote on X.
“So just muddy the water for more participation trophies,” read another negative comment.
“Oh yes. Let’s completely change the last great thing about college sports that we have left,” someone else complained.
“I can promise you absolutely no one asked for this,” read another comment.
“They’re going to ruin the best post seasons in sports, because why not?” another fan commented. “MUH MORE GAMES FOR MORE REVENUE. Why even play season schedules anymore? Just do a 456 team single elimination. Until we have to expand to 600. Maybe the magic number is 718 teams.”