The NCAA has initiated the final steps to expand the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments to 76 teams, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.
The expansion, which has been discussed for well over a year, is on track to be formalized in the upcoming weeks and would begin this coming season. Sources indicated mid-May as a potential timeline for an announcement.
The mechanics of the expansion in the men’s tournament would include eight additional at-large bids. What’s known now as the First Four — eight teams playing four games in Dayton, Ohio — would expand to 12 games played by 24 teams at two sites, one of which was expected to remain in Dayton.
The location of the new site has yet to be determined, but it was expected to be west of the Eastern time zone to help with logistics.
The expansion would lead to an additional eight men’s games, meaning the Tuesday and Wednesday of the NCAA tournament would feature 24 of the 76 men’s teams.
The traditional 64-team men’s team bracket would still begin Thursday and look much the same. The major difference would be more teams that qualify as traditional at-larges would have to play earlier than the 64-team bracket.
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