INDIANAPOLIS – Will the NCAA Tournament expand into 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 selection committee’s mock exercise that discussions about expansion would be put on hold, with a resolution not coming until after the 2026 NCAA Tournament at the earliest.
Earlier Thursday, NCAA President Charlie Baker neglected to answer a question about expansion when asked at the organization’s headquarters. Baker met with 10 members of the media and concluded the informal interview session by reinforcing his opinion: He would prefer to see March Madness expand.
“I think there’s a really good reason to expand the tournament, so I’d like to see it expand,” Baker said.
The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball committees have been debating and deliberating the concept of expanding their tournaments to 68 teams for nearly four years now. The general public – and much of the sports media – are opposed to the idea of watering down one of the nation’s most treasured sporting events.
“Right now, we’re still talking with the different stakeholders,” Baker said. “The thing to remember is that some of the people we’re talking to are having some pretty interesting business conversations themselves. And I think for us, we accept that and acknowledge that, but we’re still talking.”
Baker added that whatever decision is made, the NCAA Tournament will remain with its 32-team automatic qualifying format (which has never threatened to change) in addition to the at-large bids that fill out the field. Baker believes the threshold of 36 in general is too small for the number of teams that should have a chance on the sport’s biggest stage.
“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, a few years ago I was a little disappointed when Seton Hall and Indiana State didn’t make the tournament, because they both had quality wins and quality schedules, right? Because I don’t want to get into a situation where people are saying we have to do something about the QAs because we keep too much good teams outside of the tournament.
CBS Sports asked Baker how much it would likely cost the NCAA to add 16 more schools to the men’s and women’s tournaments. The cost element has been one of the biggest obstacles to expansion efforts over the past three years.
“I think we can find a way to pay for it. It doesn’t worry me,” Baker said.
Asked about the cost in terms of the millions of dollars the NCAA plans to add to its expenses, Baker neglected to provide further details. He was also asked what his expectations were for the 2027 NCAA tournament and he declined to release a prediction.
If the NCAA chooses to extend through 2027, a decision will have to be made in the spring. This issue has loomed over college basketball for a very long time, a testament to the logistical challenges involved, as well as the widespread resistance to change from March Madness.
In addition to discussions about expansion, Baker spoke at length about the challenges of player eligibility and the constant battles the NCAA has faced regarding rosters, NIL regulations and more. He noted that the NCAA has a much better record in court than is often reflected in the media.
“We win a lot more cases than we lose,” he said.
The NCAA provided the statistics: Since December 2024, 56 lawsuits have been filed over eligibility cases. Thirty of those 56 saw denials from plaintiffs and 12 were granted. There are seven still pending in state courts and five are pending. A local judge recently ruled against Charles Bediako’s case in Alabama, while Trinidad Chambliss recently recorded a victory in court to grant him a sixth year of eligibility in Mississippi.
Baker also said the NCAA is having conversations and preparing for the possibility that a few college football players may try to explore options to return to their college teams, should they fail to make NFL rosters during training camps in the summer of 2026.
“It’s definitely something we’ve talked about with people,” Baker said. “Basketball is just different than football for a whole bunch of reasons, but it’s definitely something we discuss.”
On the subject of possible collective bargaining, Baker said he was passionate about the fact that it probably wouldn’t happen or wouldn’t be feasible.
“To do this, we would first have to pass a federal law,” he said. “Second, student-athletes don’t want to do that. And third, when everyone says (during collective bargaining) they’re not talking, are scholarships now taxable under this arrangement? Does that apply to all kids who play college sports? Because if it does, you may have kids playing college sports who will have to write checks to their schools to pay for all the benefits they receive currently they will not be taxed on those benefits that become taxable because they are employees There are a lot of things to this question that no one ever talks about.
The NCAA has undergone massive changes over the past five years and Baker has been a proponent of modernizing the 120-year-old organization. For all the progress made with NIL legislation and player empowerment, deep problems remain and, judging by Baker’s comments on Thursday, it seems unlikely that they will be resolved in a major, tangible way in 2026.
“People get paid a lot of money to make a crystal ball,” Baker said. “It’s a stark crystal ball, because so much of it is often driven by external elements and circumstances, which in some cases are completely unpredictable.”
