INDIANAPOLIS — Will the NCAA Tournament expand in 2027? Maybe, maybe not, but we know we won’t have an answer in the immediate future. On Thursday, NCAA senior vice president Dan Gavitt told reporters participating in the mock selection committee exercise that talks on expansion will be paused, with a resolution not coming until after the 2026 NCAA Tournament at the earliest.Earlier on Thursday, NCAA president Charlie Baker neglected to answer an expansion question when asked at the organization’s headquarters. Baker met with 10 members of the media and wrapped the informal interview session by reinforcing his opinion: he would prefer to see March Madness expand. “I think there’s some very good reasons to expand the tournament, so I would like to see it expand,” Baker said. The NCAA’s men’s and women’s basketball committees have been debating and deliberating the concept of expanding their 68-team tournaments for close to four years now. The general public — and much of the sports media — stands opposed to the idea of watering down one of the country’s most treasured sporting events.
“For now, we’re still talking to the various players in this one,” Baker said. “You have to remember that some of the folks we’re talking to are going through some pretty interesting corporate conversations of their own. And I think for us, we accept and acknowledge that, but we’re still talking.”Baker added that, regardless of what decision is made, the NCAA Tournament will remain with its 32-team automatic-qualifier format (which has never been in jeopardy of changing) in addition to the at-large bids that fill up the field. Baker is of the belief that the 36 at-large cutoff is too small for the number of teams that should get a crack on the biggest stage in the sport. “That leaves 36 spots,” Baker said. “That means you’re going to leave a bunch of the top 50 teams out of the tournament, right? … I mean, couple years ago I was kind of bummed when Seton Hall and Indiana State didn’t get in the tournament, because they both had quality wins and quality schedules. … The more you do to create opportunities for the so-called bubble teams each year to get into the tournament, first of all, it puts some other really good teams that probably might belong there. But it also protects the AQs, right? Because I don’t want to end up in a situation where people say we need to do something…
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2026-02-20 04:00:53
