The NCAA Tournament will expand to 76 teams starting in 2026-27, but ESPN and CBS will not alter their bracket challenges to include the new play-in games. The traditional 64-team bracket remains unchanged.
Credit: Joel Angel Juarez/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK
The NCAA Tournament officially expanded to 76 teams on Thursday, and the first question many people had was a reasonable one: What happens to the bracket?
The answer, for now, is nothing. ESPN is not planning to expand its Tournament Challenge to include the new play-in games, and neither is CBS, according to The Athleticâs Lindsay Schnell. The 76-team format, which was formally approved by both the menâs and womenâs selection committees on Thursday and takes effect in 2026-27, adds 24 play-in games on Tuesday and Wednesday before the first round. Teams currently on the 9, 10, and 11 seed lines who would have had guaranteed spots in the bracket will now have to earn their way in.
The traditional 64-team bracket for the NCAA Tournament â the one everyone has been filling out since 1985 â stays intact.
âI donât think itâs going to be that big of a deal,â ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi told The Athletic. âAs long as the main bracket of 64 is preserved for tipoff at noon on Thursday â which is absolutely whatâs going to happen â the vast majority of people will simply play along and not care about expansion.â
ESPNâs Tournament Challenge set a record for the fourth consecutive year in 2026, with 26.6 million brackets filled out â up 7% from 24.4 million the year before â peaking at 766 brackets per second before the first round tipped off in March. The bracket is what makes March Madness a cultural event rather than just a basketball tournament, and any format change that puts that experience at risk would be a significant problem. Leaving the 64-team structure untouched is the clearest signal yet that the NCAA understands what it actually has.
Whether the play-in games become must-watch television is a separate question from whether they damage the product people already love. If Lunardi is right, the answer to that second question is no.
The post NCAA Tournament expansion wonât change ESPN, CBS bracket challenges appeared first on Awful Announcing.
The NCAA Tournament will expand to 76 teams, introducing 24 play-in games before the first round.
No, both ESPN and CBS will maintain their current bracket challenges without including the new play-in games.
Teams on the 9, 10, and 11 seed lines will now need to earn their spots in the tournament instead of having guaranteed entries.
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