NCAA president Charlie Baker hints at new numbers for March Madness expansion starting as early as 2026

March Madness has changed its format several times over the years but has held its current format for a long time. The 68-team format was adopted in 2011 and has stuck for well over a decade. Before that, college basketball had used the 64-team format since 1985.

While the NCAA does not adjust the format of the NCAA Tournament often, there could be a change as early as next season. NCAA president Charlie Baker arrived in Orlando for the Big 12 spring meetings this week. On Thursday morning, he spoke about the possibility of expanding the tournament field. It was reported by Front Office Sports reporter David Rumsey.

“That would be the goal, to try and do this for next year. … We’ve been talking about 72 and 76.”

The possible expansion of the March Madness field has been a topic of discussion a the Big 12 meetings this week. Kansas coach Bill Self told reporters on Wednesday that he and many coaches in the conference would support the move.

“The consensus among the coaches – even though it was discussed very little – was we’d be in favor of [the tournament expanding],” Self said.

The topic of expansion in March Madness is one that always gets attention. Before the NCAA settled on expanding to 68 teams in 2011, the NCAA entertained a proposal to expand to 96 teams.

The possibility of March Madness expanding its field of teams has been in the works for months

While the topic of expansion to March Madness is a hot topic at the Big 12 spring meetings this week, it has been in the works for several months. Insider Pete Thamel reported on the topic in February, providing a big update during an appearance on College GameDay.

“We have Selection Sunday a month away, and there’s development behind the scenes about what this tournament could look like in 2026,” Thamel said. “NCAA President Charlie Baker is on the record saying there’s been discussions about growing the tournament to either 72 or 76 teams.”

“I had multiple high ranking sources tell me this week that the more likely option if the tournament were to expand would be to 76. This has been a discussion with its media partners for a while on this now, and a decision on whether it does go to 76 would come in the next few months.”

It appears that the final decision on whether the tournament will expand to 72 or 76 teams has not yet been made. However, Charlie Baker appears confident that changes will be made for the next tournament in 2026.

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Alexander O’Reilly is a journalist at Sportskeeda from Kingston, Ontario with over seven years in the field at companies including SenShot, RVBlogger, Monarch Media, WordAgents, GSeC LLC, and IGC.

His favorite college team is Duke, and his favorite sporting memory was Duke winning March Madness in 2010. JJ Redick was Alex’s favorite college player when he was young but more recently, Caleb Williams gets the nod. As the Chicago Bears are Alex’s favorite NFL team, this was a perfect match.

Alex’s proudest moment came when he was interviewed by a radio station in Ottawa on his opinion on recent moves by the Ottawa Senators, which gave him a confidence boost and the knowledge that he could succeed as a writer.

Aside from sports, Alex likes to spend his time playing games. He is also very passionate about running and strives to improve at the half and full marathon distances.

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