NCAA sets April deadline for decision on basketball tournament expansion, president Charlie Baker says
The NCAA's long-winding discussion on whether to expand the men's basketball tournament will need to be made in the spring
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LAS VEGAS — After more than a year of deliberation, the NCAA's slow march toward expanding the men's basketball tournament is finally approaching a breaking point.
A definitive call on whether to grow the men's field from the current 68 teams to as many as 76 in the NCAA Tournament for the 2026-27 season must be made by April, NCAA president Charlie Baker told a small group of reporters Tuesday following his appearance at the Intercollegiate Athletics Forum.
"We are certainly still working on it and I believe that we have a window and our window probably gets us to about April," Baker said. "And we're still talking to CBS and [Warner Bros. Discovery]."
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The focus on expanding to 76 teams rather than 72 began in the summer. The preferred format includes 12 opening-round games played on Tuesday and Wednesday of the tournament's first week at two separate sites. Yahoo! Sports first detailed that structure and the particulars of the format in October.
"The logistics in the early rounds are not uncomplicated if we expand," Baker said.
Travel remains one of the biggest headaches. Twenty-four teams would need to relocate immediately after Selection Sunday, with some coming off conference title games just hours earlier. Delays tied to plane shortages, crew availability and weather have plagued the tournament in recent years. North Carolina famously missed its planned press conference on the eve of its game on a Tuesday night last March because of travel issues.
"The other [issue] is just can you get everybody in the place they need to be in time for them to practice," Baker said. "This is like a starter's pistol. It goes off Sunday ... and people are playing Tuesday."
A decision by executives has been delayed several times since discussions formally began in July 2024. Baker previously set an informal deadline in August, which was later pushed to "sometime this fall." Both dates came and went with no decision, though there is more clarity on which expansion format (76 instead of 72) executives prefer.
The last major expansion came in 2011 with the debut of the First Four. If approved, this next expansion will be the biggest change to March Madness in more than a decade.
