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Jeff Borzello
Several authors
NCAA President Charlie Baker said Thursday he believes a decision on whether to expand the NCAA Tournament will be made “this fall,” making it less likely it will impact the 2026 men’s and women’s tournaments.
Baker, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., said the biggest challenge to expanding a tournament — especially one that would take place in less than eight months — is logistics.
“The tournament must begin after the conference championships are over,” he said. “And right now, Selection Sunday is about two hours after the last match of the tournament ends and has to end on the Tuesday before the Masters. There’s not a lot of room there. For any expansion, we’re going to have to figure out how to introduce it and then logistically how to make it work.”
Baker previously told Yahoo Sports, which was first to report the diminishing likelihood of an expanded NCAA Tournament for the upcoming season, that a decision would need to be made by August to take effect for the 2026 tournaments.
On Thursday, Baker also made his case for expansion, an argument that has been repeated by conference leaders since SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey first publicly addressed the subject in 2022.
“There are some really good teams every year that don’t make the tournament for various reasons,” Baker said. “One of the reasons they don’t participate is because we have 32 automatic qualifiers. There are 32 conferences in DI, and their conference champion goes into the tournament. Now, I love it. I think it’s great and I never want that to change. But that means there’s only 36 spots left for everyone and in many cases there are teams that are top 50 or 60 teams in the country.”
He cited 2024 Saint John and 2024 State of Indiana as teams that should have been in the NCAA tournament field as at-large bids, specifically referring to the Red Storm’s near loss has UConn in that year’s Big East tournament.
“I don’t accept the idea that some of the teams currently excluded are not good,” Baker said. “They are. And I think it sucks.”
The Division I men’s and women’s basketball committees met separately earlier this month to discuss expansion, but no decisions were made at the meeting. The NCAA Division I Board of Directors will meet next in August.
“The topic of expanding the field for each championship has been discussed at length but no decisions or recommendations have been made,” Dan Gavitt, NCAA senior vice president of basketball, said in a statement following the meetings. “Outcomes that are still viable include maintaining tournaments at 68 teams or expanding the field to 72 or 76 teams before the 2026 or 2027 championships.”
