NCAA makes major announcement after expansion fiasco for 2025-26 season

The NCAA announced on Monday that it won't be expanding the March Madness past 68 teams for the 2025-26 season. After some discussion, the organization voted to stick with the tournament's existing structure for at least another season.

The idea of expanding the tournament to 72, or even 76 teams, was floated by NCAA president Charlie Baker. However, after further discussions, those plans have been put on hold. According to the NCAA's Dan Gavitt, expansion is off the table for 2025-26, but talks on future expansion are expected to pick up again.

"Expanding the tournament fields is no longer being contemplated for the 2026 men's and women's basketball championships," Gavitt said in a statement. "However, the committees will continue conversations on whether to recommend expanding to 72 or 76 teams in advance of the 2027 championships."

Baker pointed to logistics as one of the biggest hurdles standing in the way of expansion for next season. He explained in July how tight the tournament schedule already is.

"The tournament has to start after the conference championships are over," Baker said. "And right now Selection Sunday happens like two hours after the last tournament game ends and has to finish by the Tuesday before the Masters. There's not a lot of room there. Any expansion, we're going to have to figure out how to put it in and then logistically how to make it work."

While the expansion has been suspended, according to Gavitt's statement, it seems more like a matter of when, not if. However, the NCAA has yet to reveal how expansion would work should it happen.

"Some really good teams that don't get into the tournament": NCAA President Charlie Baker on tournament expansion

NCAA president Charlie Baker laid out his case in July for expanding March Madness. In his view, the current format leaves out too many deserving teams.

"I don't buy the idea that some of the teams that currently get left out aren't good," Baker said. "They are. And I think that sucks. There are, every year, some really good teams that don't get into the tournament for a bunch of reasons. One of the reasons they don't get in is because we have 32 automatic qualifiers."

He added that there's no plan to overhaul the qualification system, as he loves the way it works. However, he also believes there's room for improvement, especially in creating space for more deserving teams to join the tournament.

"There are 32 conferences in D-I, and their conference champion gets into the tournament," Baker said. "Now, I love that. I think it's great, and I never want that to change. But that means there's only 36 slots left for everybody else and in many cases there are teams that are among the 50 or 60 best teams in the country."

The NCAA will likely work out a way to have the expansion start in the 2026-27 season. For now, it will be stick with the existing format.

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Edited by Victor Ramon Galvez