NAPLES, Fla. – College basketball got one step closer to an expanded NCAA men's basketball tournament this week.
NCAA officials presented at least two models of an expanded field to Division I conference commissioners on Wednesday, one with an additional four teams and the other with an additional eight teams, commissioners told Yahoo Sports. Officials declined to speak publicly about the models.
The models would expand the 68-team field to either 72 or 76 teams, with additional at-large selections as well as at least one additional First Four site. Any expansion would begin in the 2025-26 season, at the earliest. If the men's event expands, the women's tournament would likely see a similar expansion.
Dan Gavitt, the NCAA's vice president for men's basketball championships, unveiled the model in a presentation at the commissioners' annual summer meeting on Wednesday. In the culmination of months of work, Gavitt outlined possibilities for what commissioners believe could be the inevitable expansion of the men's event — a movement supported mostly by the power conferences, Yahoo Sports reported in February.
To avoid eliminating any of the 28 small-conference automatic qualifiers — a time-honored and popular concept with fans — the NCAA and conference leaders are aiming to add at-large selections as they have done in the past. The last expansion in 2011 added four at-large teams and created the First Four in Dayton, Ohio, where two pairs of 16 seeds and two pairs of at-large selections meet in play-in games.
Any new expansion of the field is expected to result in at least one additional First Four site, probably in the Western time zone. But expanding the tournament — even to just four teams — is a complicated issue.
Officials plan to retain the current 64-team bracket. Play-in game winners need space in that structure, so space will have to be made. The 10-12 seeds originally included in the 64-team bracket may need to win play-in games on Tuesday or Wednesday to advance to the first round on Thursday or Friday.
There are more tough decisions ahead. Officials need to determine whether more small-conference automatic qualifiers will be included in play-in games — a sensitive topic for some commissioners of leagues with fewer resources.
There's another: Will the additional games lead to more revenue? That's an unanswered question. CBS and Turner are not required to increase the amount they pay, according to people familiar with the contract.
Gavitt's modeling of a potentially expanded field is one step in the approval process that could take several more months as commissioners explore changes to what is widely regarded as the most popular event in college athletics — and in American sports. Various groups are scheduled to examine the expansion modeling this summer and fall, including meetings of the NCAA Basketball Oversight Committee next week and the NCAA Basketball Selection Committee meeting scheduled for next month.
The basketball tournament is the NCAA's biggest and most important revenue source, helping to run the organization as well as subsidize hundreds of small-college athletic departments. As part of a tournament television deal with CBS and Turner that runs through 2032, the NCAA distributes about $700 million annually to its schools, both in base amounts and in units earned through advancing to the event.
While the majority of that revenue goes to power conferences, leaders of the Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Big 12 have publicly expressed a desire to expand the field of 36 at-large selections to open the way for more of their schools. This spring, commissioners held several meetings with NCAA president Charlie Baker about tournament expansion, strongly encouraging the NCAA to find a way to grow the field.
“I want to see the best teams compete for national championships, no different than any other team.” [the Big Ten and SEC] “I don’t know if that’s happening in football,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark told Yahoo Sports in February. “I’m not sure that’s happening currently.”
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips believes an “overall review” of the tournament is necessary, and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has suggested expanding the field several times over the past two years.
Expansion is nothing new for the event. In 1975, the tournament expanded to 32 teams to allow a second team to represent a conference in addition to the champion. In 1979, it expanded to 40 teams, and then to 48 in 1980. In 1985, the tournament expanded to 64 teams, and in 2001, the tournament expanded to 68 by adding a play-in game, before expanding to 68 in 2011.