Sources: NCAA weighing tournament expansion to 72 or 76 teams

Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz reacts to the report by college sports reporter Ross Dellenger on Division I conference commissioners being presented with multiple models of a potential expanded field for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, which could take effect as soon as the 2025-2026 season.

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Video Transcript

The NCAA is banking on the premise that there’s no such thing as too much of a good thing as we are now facing expansion of the NCAA basketball tournament.

Look, we’ve already gotten to 68.

We all know that.

Now it looks like either four or eight teams will be added to take us to 72 or 76.

The wild part about this is the expansion will come in the form of likely play in games.

So you’ll have more 1011 and 12 seeds fighting for their life to get into the tournament.

Now, I understand that everything’s about money and at the end of the day, we’re going to watch all of this, which means it’s a good idea.

But does it devalue at some level what it actually means to make the tournament?

I think all of us as fans want our favorite teams to find a path to the most exciting time in sports with March Madness.

But at what cost sure, we get the occasional upset and the upsets in the first rounder what we all love, but let’s be real.

This expansion isn’t gonna make any of the teams that are being added one step closer to actually winning a national championship.

It’s just being more of a disruptor and adding more drama.

I know I may be the lone objector to more drama in anything and drama sells.

But at the end of the day, what the NCAA has told us is they trust no matter how many teams they put in this thing we will continue to watch.

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