Report: NCAA leadership presents new March Madness model to expand tournament by 4 or 8 teams

College sports leadership took another big step toward expanding the NCAA Tournament, Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported Wednesday. Commissioners were presented with a model that would expand March Madness by four or eight teams as early as the 2025-26 season.

NCAA vice president for basketball Dan Gavitt presented the models to commissioners Wednesday, and an idea would be to expand at-large bids instead of taking away the automatic bids from smaller conferences. The tournament could also see an additional First Four site, along with Dayton.

If such expansion occurs, the 64-team bracket will stay in place, Dellenger reported. That means the NCAA would look to bring more teams in by adding play-in games.

Rumors of NCAA Tournament expansion have swirled for some time, but Wednesday’s presentation is the first presentation to commissioners. The expectation is if the men’s tournament grows, the women’s will, as well.

The NCAA Tournament field expanded to 68 teams in 2011 with the introduction of the First Four. However, chatter increased over the last year about adding more teams to the field. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey made waves after saying “we’re giving away highly competitive opportunities for automatic qualifiers,” but Dellenger’s report suggests expansion will include more at-larges.

One thing’s for sure, though. The committee is looking to give conferences more “access” – and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark previously said he could get on board with a 76-team format.

“The data shows if they do expand to 76, the Power 4 conferences will benefit mostly, and I think at the center of that will be the Big 12…More access is great for us,” Yormark said.

Coach K: ‘I would like to see more access’ to NCAA Tournament

Legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski also called for more “access” if the NCAA Tournament grows. He compared it to what football does with the bowl system with a six-win threshold and wondered if basketball could do something similar.

“I would like to see more access,” Krzyzewski said on his SiriusXM show. “That’s not what I’ve spent all my time on, but I’d like to see more credit being given to the teams that have done well and celebrate our sport. I think it’s a deep look into the tournament and what can be done. Is there’s something that – instead of the conference tournament, although they make a lot of money, that lends itself to the 64 or 68? Is there something in between the regular season and the tournament that we could add that would add to the game, but also to give recognition to the coaches and the teams that have had terrific seasons?

“‘We didn’t make the NCAA.’ ‘Shame on you.’ ‘Yeah, but we were 21-6.’ ‘Shame on you.’ Football does a lot better job of that. You go 6-6 or 7-5 or whatever it is, and God bless them. They use the bowls to keep interest in college football during December. Then, they have the Playoff. Is there something that we could do to do that with basketball? I don’t know.”