Austin Konenski
The NCAA is looking to expand March Madness, and a decision is coming soon. NCAA leadership and members of the association’s basketball committees are expected to finalize an expansion of the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments to 76 teams, as reported by Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger.
If this comes to frution, eight games would be added to the current “First Four” played on Tuesday and Wednesday before the original first round. The new “opening round” would feature 24 teams playing in 12 games over Tuesday and Wednesday at two host sites. The 12 winners would then join the other 52 teams.
The NCAA has looked into expanding the March Madness bracket for several years. This would drastically change the format of the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments over the first two days. In this scenario, the original Round of 64 would stay. The path to making it would just be different.
This expansion would give the NCAA more games over the first two days instead of the traditional four matchups. There would be a full day of games on Tuesday through Sunday in this new format. According to Dellenger, leaders at the Big 12 and ACC have aggressively pushed for the expansion of March Madness.
It would let bubble teams extend their seasons beyond the conference tournaments. This could allow more power league schools to make the March Madness bracket, but as seen in this year’s version of the tournament, mid-major programs have made their mark.
As of now, nothing is official, but a March Madness expansion could be coming soon. The NCAA tournaments will wrap up on April 6, so an announcement could be coming shortly. If so, it would change how March Madness operates.
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