The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball selection committees have approved the expansion of the Big Dance to 76 teams.
Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported Thursday that the NCAA’s two basketball selection committees have agreed to the NCAA tournaments' expansion from 68 to 76 teams beginning in 2027. The basketball oversight committees are now expected to approve the agreement, followed by the Division I Board of Directors and Board of Governors.
The NCAA Tournament has a long history of expansion since it was first introduced to men's college basketball in 1939. It started as an eight-team championship tournament, then doubled to 16 teams in 1951 and again to 32 teams in 1975. It adopted a 64-team model, considered the modern era of NCAA Tournament basketball, in 1985, then moved to 68 teams in 2011 with the "First Four" games played between the lowest automatic (No. 16 seeds) and at-large (No. 11 seeds) qualifiers before the first round began.
The number of games before the first round will grow to 12 with the expansion to 76 teams, adding eight at-large qualifiers to the tourney. Not that those additional teams are likely to be title contenders. No team lower than a No. 8 seed has ever won the men's NCAA Tournament. The lone No. 8 seed to do it in the modern era is Villanova in 1985. Only three teams that entered below the No. 5 seed line have won national championships in the 42 modern-era tournaments.
No team lower than a No. 3 seed has ever won a national championship on the women's side. Still, the expansion to 76 teams for both the men's and women's tournaments is set to finalize in mid-May.
