According to multiple reports, both the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball selection committees have voted to approve the expansion of the March Madness tournament from 68 teams to 76 teams.
NEW: The D-I men's and women's basketball committees have officially voted to expand the NCAA tournament to 76 teams, @MattNorlander reports. https://t.co/qR2zGzwFbW pic.twitter.com/6OsryvKW2k
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The unanimously-approved motion will still need to be approved by several other boards and committees, but that is largely expected.
These committees are set to meet in the coming days and weeks.
While the details of the approved motion have not been made public, earlier proposals involved adding the new eight teams to an expanded version of the current First Four round.
This revamped play-in round would involve 24 teams playing 12 single elimination games. While the other 52 teams would receive an automatic bid, the winners of the play-in games would receive the final 12 spots needed to complete the standard 64-team bracket for the first round.
NCAA president Charlie Baker previously supported the idea of expansion.
“There are every year some really good teams that don’t get to the tournament for a bunch of reasons,” Baker said last fall. “One of the reasons is we have 32 automatic qualifiers [for conference champions]. I love that and think it’s great and never want that to change, but that means there’s only 36 slots left for everybody else.”
While there are still rounds of approval that will need be completed, expansion of the March Madness tournament seems all but confirmed.
James Parker is a sports writer for Ball Exclusives, follow him on X @TheJames_Parker
