March Madness won’t expand this season, and why it never should

The NCAA Tournament is staying put at 68 participants, for now.

According to a statement from Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball, the annual NCAA Tournament in both men’s and women’s hoops will not expand in 2026.

Gavitt’s statement was disclosed via ESPN and other media reports on Monday. He said while expansion is off the table for the upcoming season, conversations will continue “on whether to recommend expanding to 72 or 76 teams in advance of the 2027 championships.”

Late last month, Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports noted that an expansion of March Madness for the spring of 2026 was unlikely, with NCAA President Charlie Baker citing “logistics” as the reason why.

Even though the Big Dance isn’t growing in 2026, future expansion is going to occur, because there’s too much money at stake in one of the sports world’s most popular events.

However, adding more participants to the NCAA Tournament isn’t going to make it better. It could have the opposite effect, especially if a future expansion results in more sub-par power-conference schools hearing their name called on Selection Sunday.

In 2011, the Big Dance grew to its current 68 participants, while also adding in the First Four. How future expansion would work, logistically, remains unclear, although it’s likely that more at-large teams from the power leagues would get invited, as opposed to mid-majors.

But how much “better” would the NCAA Tournament be if a school from the Atlantic Coast Conference, for example, lands a bid to the Big Dance despite only winning 16 to 18 regular-season games?

Sure, that ACC program’s fan base would feel elated, it’s good marketing for the conferences and it could help with television ratings, but it doesn’t make the NCAA Tournament more appealing to the vast majority of fans.

If expanding March Madness results in a quality mid-major team that won 25-plus regular-season contests, but lost in its conference tournament, securing a berth to the NCAA Tournament, that would prove more palatable.

Still, there hasn’t been an uproar from fans about a desire to expand the Big Dance. Teams that were on the bubble had their chances during the regular season to make their cases for inclusion on Selection Sunday.

Leave the NCAA Tournament at 68 participants. It’s a perfect three weeks of college basketball every spring that doesn’t need any fine-tuning.