
The NCAA tournament is expanding to 76 teams. It's happening after this week's championship game wraps up, possibly within days. A source told Yahoo Sports it "will happen," and every major conference commissioner has been positioning for it since the House v. NCAA settlement changed the financial math a year ago. The format adds eight at-large bids, creates a 24-team opening round played at two sites before the current bracket starts, and gives the power conferences exactly what they've been asking for: more access, more revenue, and more control.
If you're a mid-major fan, you already know this isn't for you.
Expansion is about money, not fairness
How the New Format Works
Right now, 68 teams make the tournament. Thirty-two get automatic bids through conference tournaments, and 36 are at-large selections. Under the 76-team format, 52 teams advance directly to the round of 64. The other 24 — a mix of the lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the last at-large bids — play 12 opening-round games on Tuesday and Wednesday of the first week, likely in Dayton and one additional site.
The 12 winners join the 52 teams already in the bracket, and from there the tournament plays out as it always has. Functionally, the First Four becomes the First Twenty-Four. The bracket doesn't change structure. It just gets a bigger lobby.
Follow the Money
The real reason this is happening isn't about deserving bubble teams. It's about television revenue.
The NCAA's TV contract with CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery runs through 2031 and generates roughly $1 billion annually for men's basketball alone. Only about 20% of that — around $200 million — is distributed based on school participation and performance in the tournament. The power conferences want a bigger slice, and more teams in the field means more games on television means more leverage in the next negotiation.
Over the last five years, 15 of the 20 "last four out" teams — the ones who just missed — were from power conferences. That's the data point the Big 12 and ACC used to push for expansion. "I want to see the best teams competing for a national championship," Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said, which is a fine sentiment that also happens to benefit his conference financially.
NCAA President Charlie Baker supports it too. "We have 32 automatic qualifiers," Baker said. "That means there's only 36 slots left for everybody else." The math, in his view, is too tight. Two 11-seeds — Texas and Miami of Ohio — won combined three games this tournament. More at-large spots means fewer complaints from coaches who think they got snubbed.
I want to see the best teams competing for a national championship.
What the Mid-Majors Get
An opening round in Dayton. That's about it.
The expansion doesn't give mid-major conferences more automatic bids. It doesn't change the allocation formula for tournament revenue. It adds 8 at-large spots, and the overwhelming majority of those will go to power conference teams — the 9th-place Big Ten team, the 8th-place SEC team, the kind of squads that went .500 in conference play but have the brand and the NET ranking to justify a bid.
Atlantic Sun Commissioner Jeff Bacon made the counterargument as well as anyone: keep basketball together, like England's FA Cup, where small programs and large ones compete on the same stage. The tournament already does this. A 16-seed beating a 1-seed is what makes March special. Expansion doesn't threaten that matchup directly — but it does dilute the opening weekend by adding 12 games nobody outside Dayton will watch.
The spending gap makes it worse. Utah State reportedly spent $2.4 million on basketball rosters this season, which may be the highest among non-power programs. Kentucky spent $22 million. When the competitive floor is that far below the competitive ceiling, adding more teams from the ceiling doesn't help the teams on the floor. It just gives them more losses in March.
The Spending Gap
This Tournament Proved the Point — Both Points
The 2026 tournament had three 1-seeds, one 2-seed, one 3-seed, and one 6-seed in the Elite Eight. No 13-seed or higher won a first-round game for the second straight year. The chalk held. The money won. If your argument is that the best teams deserve more bids, this bracket supports you — the best teams advanced because they could afford to build the best rosters.
If your argument is that the tournament's magic comes from unpredictability, this bracket undermines you. The upsets aren't happening like they used to. NIL spending and the transfer portal have concentrated talent at the top, and adding more bids for those programs won't make the opening weekend more exciting. It'll just make it longer.
What Happens Next
The expansion will be formally announced after tonight's championship game, per multiple reports. The new format could debut as early as 2027, pending final negotiations with broadcast partners. The current contract runs through 2031, and any changes to the tournament structure affect the value of the next deal.
Sixty-eight teams has been the format since 2011. Before that it was 65, and before that it was 64. The tournament has grown every time the money demanded it. This time won't be different. The only question is whether anyone remembers what made it work in the first place.