NCAA Basketball Tournament Brackets to Stay at 68 Teams for 2026 After Expansion Buzz

The NCAA won't be expanding the men's and women's basketball tournaments ahead of the 2025-26 season.

Senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt announced Monday any proposals to grow the field from 68 teams will be tabled until the 2027 tournament at the earliest:

The NCAA adopted the 68-team format 2011, having added a play-in game to bring the field to 65 teams a decade earlier.

The college sports landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years thanks to the adoption of name, image and likeness legislation along with unlimited transfers. As a result of realignment, schools are increasingly being concentrated in fewer conferences.

It has never been easier for non-traditional powers to crash the party, while the bigger programs with national brands can find themselves frozen out of the Big Dance with a higher frequency.

Expanding the tournament would carry obvious commercial benefits in terms of being able to sell more tickets and having additional inventory for network partners.

The Athletic's Lindsay Schnell, Brendan Marks and CJ Moore cited one head coach at a mid-major school who said he's "100 percent for" a modest expansion.

"The NCAA Tournament is life-changing. It's one of the best things a kid will ever do," the coach said. "They dream of it, and we're only letting 15-20 percent of players play in it. Adding eight more teams is not going to hurt anyone. Nobody is going to mind watching another round. Who doesn't want a reason to take Tuesday and Wednesday off from work, too?"

Critics of the idea argue it risks watering down the tournament and removing the significance of simply earning a bid. Rather than widening access for schools from non-power conferences, it could have the opposite effect as well.

Thanks to the NCAA's decision, this conversation isn't going anywhere.

While the 2026 tournament is sticking to 68 teams, that's far from a permanent feature of college basketball's postseason.