NCAA Expands Basketball Tournament to 76 Teams, Altering Path for Mid-Majors

The college basketball tournament field will increase from 68 to 76 teams for the 2026-27 season. This marks the largest structural change to the event since the field grew from 48 to 64 in 1985. The expansion introduces a 12-game Opening Round that replaces the previous First Four format.

The season begins Sunday night with Notre Dame playing Villanova in Rome. The new tournament structure takes effect immediately after Selection Sunday. Dayton, Ohio, and Wichita, Kansas, will each host six Opening Round games on the following Tuesday and Wednesday. The traditional first round will still feature 64 teams on Thursday and Friday, but the composition of that field changes.

Under the previous system, 60 teams entered the tournament directly in the first round. Now, only 52 teams will start there. The remaining 12 first-round spots will be filled by winners of the Opening Round. This shift moves the pressure of early elimination to the Tuesday and Wednesday sessions rather than the Thursday first round.

CBS Sports ranks Duke as the No. 1 overall seed in its preseason Bracketology. The Blue Devils return four key rotation players from a 35-3 squad and have added the No. 2 freshman class and No. 11 transfer group. Newcomers include Wisconsin transfer John Blackwell and 17-year-old Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje. Duke defeated Tennessee 103-64 and Kansas 90-84 in preseason play.

The expansion is projected to impact smaller conferences. The Pac-12 returns as the 32nd Division I conference, restoring the number of automatic bids to 32. If eight leagues send multiple teams again, 24 leagues would be left with only one automatic bid each. Projections suggest that approximately 12 of those single-bid teams would land in the Opening Round.

Last season, only four single-bid teams played in the First Four. The remaining 29 automatic qualifiers advanced directly to the first round. This year, projections indicate 26 automatic qualifiers will reach the first round, joined by 38 at-large teams. The projected field by conference includes 13 SEC teams, 10 Big Ten teams, 9 Big 12 teams, 9 ACC teams, 5 Big East teams, 3 Pac-12 teams, and 2 Atlantic 10 teams.

The last four teams projected to make the field are Colorado State, West Virginia, LSU, and Baylor. The first four teams projected to miss the cut are Xavier, Ole Miss, San Diego State, and Creighton.