March Madness: Here's how the new 76-team NCAA tournament will work

The NCAA tournament is going to have a new look and feel in 2027. The NCAA, and its various committees, agreed Thursday to expand both the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments from 68 teams to 76 teams.

While that change was rumored for months, it was unclear exactly how the NCAA would proceed with eight new teams being added to the tournament.

Following Thursday’s news, the organization outlined exactly how the new, 76-team NCAA tournament will work, including how teams will be chosen and how the opening round of the tournament will be different.

Here are the new NCAA tournament rule changes outlined by the NCAA on Thursday:

• The men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments will each feature 76 teams. The eight new teams being added to both events will be at-large selections.
• The First Four is no more, and will be replaced by the Opening Round. The Opening Round will include the 12 lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the 12 lowest-seeded at-large teams.
• The Opening Round will include 12 games, with six at-large and six automatic-qualifier games each. They will be played as triple-headers on Tuesday and Wednesday on the men’s side and Wednesday and Thursday on the women’s side.
• For the men, six games will be played in Dayton. The other six will occur at a “yet to be determined site.” Women’s Opening Round games will be played on campus sites.

In addition to laying out those changes, the NCAA also put out a handy side-by-side graphic showing how the tournament will differ compared to years past.

What will the new 76-team NCAA tournament bracket look like?

With the Opening Round now containing 12 games, the NCAA tournament bracket will have a slightly different look. The 12 Opening Round games will be featured above the bracket and separate by the at-large teams and the automatic qualifiers.

The actual bracket shows where the Opening Round winners will slot into the first round.

And in case you were still confused and needed even more of an explanation for how the new tournament format will work, the NCAA put out a video in which Andy Katz laid it all out.

Once the Opening Round is over and the winning teams are slotted into the bracket, the NCAA tournament will proceed as normal the rest of the way. The first round, second round, Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final Four and national championship will all remain unchanged following Thursday’s expansion.