The NCAA Tournament Expands to 76 Teams

Apr 4, 2026; Phoenix, AZ, USA; A Wilson Evo NXT basketball with the Final Four logo on the court at Mortgage Matchup Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Surprising no one, the NCAA decided that an increase in revenue was a good thing and added 8 teams to the tournament for both the men and women beginning in 2027. Estimates are that the additional teams will generate $300 million in revenue over the remaining six years of the broadcast contract. $131 million of that is expected to be distributed to the participants.

How Will This Magic Happen?

In order to accommodate the increase, they are rebadging the ‘First Four’ to be the ‘March Madness Opening Round’. Instead of two games Tuesday and Wednesday in Dayton, there will be three games each day in Dayton and three games each of the two days in a second city, yet unnamed. The lowest-seeded12 automatic qualifiers as seeded by the committees will play in half of the MMOR games, while the other six games will feature the 12 lowest-seeded at-large teams.

Are They Boiling the Frog?

I’m wondering if deep in the bowels of the NCAA HQ in Indianapolis there is a group focused on the next NCAA Tournament broadcast contract. Their mission is to determine how big they can make the tournament over the next six years to maximize the revenue in that next contract. When they met back in 2011 they decided they could get away with a 6.3% increase, and grew from 64 to 68. This time, 15 years later, they said, “I’ll be we could get away with doubling that one with very few complaints” and increased it 11.8%, going from 68 to 76. I’m betting that before the contract ends those same folks will say, “Well that last one went perfectly, let’s double it again” and our perfect tournament will have ballooned to 92 teams.

But at least we should get in.