On Monday, the NCAA revealed that there will be no expansion to its men\u2019s and women\u2019s college basketball tournaments, confirming that March Madness will retain 68-team fields for the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n
The committee overseeing the tournament weighed the idea of expanding the field to 72 or 76 teams. According to several reports, Dan Gavitt, the NCAA\u2019s senior vice president of men\u2019s basketball, said that while a decision has been made regarding this season, \u201cthe committees will continue conversations on whether to recommend expanding to 72 or 76 team in advance of the 2027 championships.\u201d<\/p>\n
NCAA president Charlie Baker told Front Office Sports in May that expanding March Madness is something \u201cthat would be the goal, to try and do this for next year.\u201d Baker said the window could close as it weighs the value of expansion in concert with longtime broadcast partner CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns TNT, TBS, and TruTV, all of which host March Madness games. <\/p>\n
Both broadcast partners have deals with college sports\u2019 governing body through the 2032 season, estimated at close to $1 billion annually<\/a>. The consensus among the NCAA committee and a number of conferences across college basketball is that expanding the field could be worth even more to broadcast partners, in addition to allowing more teams to make the tournaments. <\/p>\n Any changes would mark the sixth time the field has expanded since the tournament was introduced with eight teams in 1939. The last time the field expanded was in 2011, when the NCAA added its \u201cFirst Four\u201d games between the programs with the lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the four at-large teams also with the lowest seed. <\/p>\n Penn State No. 3 in coaches poll<\/p>\n