The NCAA Tournament has officially voted to expand.
There's been a lot of talk about the NCAA Tournament expanding in recent years. The 64-team NCAA Tournament moved up to 68 teams several years ago. However, that's felt like that perfect number.
Until now, of course.
The NCAA Tournament, on both the men's and women's side, will be expanding from 68 teams to 76 teams, according to CBS Sports college hoops insider Matt Norlander on Thursday afternoon.
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"It is official. The D-I men's and women's basketball committees have voted to expand the NCAA Tournament to 76 teams, sources tell @CBSSports . More committees still have to ratify, but this was the big lever-pull to making it a reality," he reported.
"Source: The men's and women's selection committees voted unanimously to expand the NCAA Tournament to 76 starting in 2027. Not a single dissenting vote."
ESPN's Seth Greenberg is a fan of it
Greenberg, who was on the outside looking in for the NCAA Tournament several years at Virginia Tech, is in favor of expansion.
“For those of you losing your mind that the NCAA Tournament expanded from 68 to 76, get over yourselves,” the former Virginia Tech coach said in a social media video. “When you have these mega-conferences, you’re playing 20-game schedules, and you know what, you might be 8-12. But those eight games that you won, five of them might be against teams that are in the top-25. And then out of conference, the way things are right now you see more good games out of conference, you might have two wins against top-25 teams. All of the sudden, you have seven wins against top-25 teams. You got seven wins against teams that are going to advance in the NCAA Tournament.
“And yeah, your record might not be great. It might be 18-12, or it might be 17-13, but you’re a team that can win games in the NCAA Tournament. And more importantly, you expanded eight more teams. I’ve been in my house, with my players, that win 10, 11 ACC games, seven, six, five games against the field, and didn’t get in.
“And how about the mid-majors? The expansion is going to potentially give the Atlantic 10 a better opportunity, the Mountain West a better opportunity, the Missouri Valley a better opportunity to get more teams in the tournament. So, adding eight teams? Please, just get over yourself. College basketball and the NCAA Tournament will be just fine. By the way, look at the non-conference games that are being played right now because people aren’t afraid to potentially take a loss because they know that it will help their body of work. The NCAA Tournament is in great hands, and 76 will have no impact on the regular season, nor will it have an impact on the NCAA Tournament.”
Greenberg is somewhat alone in this take, but clearly, the NCAA agrees.
