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The NCAA will expand the Division I menâs and womenâs basketball tournaments from 68 to 76 teams starting in 2027. This marks the first increase in field size for the men's tournament since 2011 and for the women's since 2022.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - APRIL 06: The March Madness logo on a screen during the National Championship game of the 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball between the Connecticut Huskies and the Michigan Wolverines at Lucas Oil Stadium on April 6, 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) | Getty Images
March Madness just got a little bigger. Whether that will make the best sporting event in the world any better remains to be seen.
The NCAA formally announced Thursday that the Division I menâs and womenâs basketball tournaments will expand from 68 to 76 teams in 2027. It is the first increase in field size since 2011 for the menâs tourney and 2022 for the womenâs event.
The added games will be split between automatic qualifiers from one-bid leagues, ones that would normally get No. 15 and 16 seeds, and the final at-large selections that often are seeded 11th, 12th and 13th. The latter would have impacted the UA womenâs team in 2024 when it faced Auburn in the âFirst Fourâ that will now be called the Opening Round.
Opening round games in the womenâs tourney will continue to be held on campus sites on the Wednesday and Thursday before the first round, while on the menâs side those games will be played on the Tuesday and Wednesday before. But will previously all preliminary games had been played in Dayton, Ohio, six of the 12 opening round contests will be held at a second city.
That additional venue is expected to be in the western half of the country, the top candidate considered to be Salt Lake City.
The winners of games involving 15 and 16 seeds would then face No. 1 and 2 seeds in the first round, and if this format were in place this past season Arizonaâs menâs squad may not have had Long Island as its opening opponent. The Sharks would have had to win an opening round game before getting sent to San Diego.
The opening round winners from the at-large games would get slotted in to face No. 4, 5 and 6 seeds, and traditionally at least one of those teams has ended up winning at least once more after that in the menâs tourney. This past NCAA Tournament saw Texas, coached by former UA coach Sean Miller, go from the First Four to the Sweet 16 and would have faced Arizona in the West Region final had Purdue not won on a last-second tip shot.
The NCAA basketball tournaments will expand to 76 teams, with added games for automatic qualifiers and final at-large selections.
The men's tournament last increased in 2011, while the women's tournament was last expanded in 2022.
The expansion will allow more teams from one-bid leagues to participate, specifically those that would typically receive No. 15 and 16 seeds.

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