How Players Era tournament expansion could make improve Final Four

College basketball fans are well aware of the expansion happening across the sport ahead of the 2026-2027 campaign. The NCAA tournament is expanding from 68 teams to 76 teams, but the early-season Players Era tournament is also getting bigger.

The Players Era tournament is expanding from 18 teams to 24 teams and will feature separate tournaments in back-to-back weeks in November.

While NCAA tournament expansion is receiving a lot of blowback, there's a world in which the expanded Players Era tournament might actually be a good thing.

As 21 out of the 24 teams in the Players Era tournament come from power conferences (and that doesn't even include Gonzaga), college basketball fans might be treated to a higher volume of higher-quality games earlier in the calendar. While NCAA tournament expansion has prompted some to say that the regular season is devalued, some of that devaluation could be mitigated with higher-profile contests.

Additionally, the Players Era tournament could have an unintended benefit on the conversation surrounding the Final Four months later. Since the Players Era tournament will feature many programs that are Final Four worthy, there's a chance that the Final Four could serve as a rematch of a Players Era tournament game.

That would give fans and analysts the chance to go back and rewatch what happened in the first contest. Could the losing team make enough adjustments to flip the script in the Final Four? Did the winning team suffer an injury that makes them a completely different team in March Madness? Did one player on either team improve by leaps and bounds, enough so that it would change the outcome?

The narratives would present themselves, and fans of the losing program would relish a rematch in the Final Four with everything on the line.

Time will tell as to whether both sets of expansion serve the NCAA well, but the Players Era's growth appears to have a solid chance to do more good than harm.