NCAA reportedly moving closer to expanding basketball tournament

The seismic changes to college sports could be coming for the NCAA basketball tournament within the next two years.

The NCAA presented models of an expanded tournament field to a group of conference commissioners this week, according to Yahoo!

At least two models were presented, according to the report. One would expand the tournament by four teams, to 72 total. The other would expand by eight teams, to 76. Both models would involve adding additional play-in games to the four already played in the current model.

Any expansion would begin in the 2025-26 season at the earliest and likely include the women’s basketball tournament, as well. Any new model would need multiple more approvals before becoming official.

Commissioners from power conference leagues have increasingly spoken of tournament expansion in recent years, as they seek to add more at-large berths that would translate into more revenue for their leagues. The 68-team field currently includes 32 automatic qualifiers and 36 at-large teams.

The field was last expanded from 64 to 68 teams in 2011 by adding four play-in games.