Conversations about expanding the NCAA Tournament field took a step forward on Wednesday, according to a report from Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger.
According to Dellenger’s sources, NCAA vice president for the men’s basketball championship Dan Gavitt unveiled two models for March Madness expansion to the Division I conference commissioners. Dellenger said one model expanded the field by four teams and the other added eight teams.
Dellenger said no expanded field would go into effect until the 2026 tournament at the earliest. The longtime college football reporter said the debates hinge around which seeds would be pushed back to qualifying games.
“Officials need to determine if more small-conference automatic qualifiers will be relegated to play-in games,” Dellenger wrote. “A sensitive subject for some commissioners of lower-resourced leagues.”
The Big 12, ACC, and SEC commissioners have all voted for expansion over the past several months, with the most notable quotes coming from Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark back in February.
“I want to see the best teams competing for a national championship,” Yormark told Yahoo Sports. “I’m not sure that is currently happening.”
Any expansion to the men’s bracket would be mirrored in the women’s bracket, if not in the same year then in the near future. The Duke men’s basketball team made 38 of the last 40 NCAA Tournament fields, and the women’s team reached the women’s bracket 25 times since 1995.