NCAA Tournament expansion talks will wait until after March, executives say

INDIANAPOLIS — Decisions on whether to expand the NCAA basketball tournaments won’t be made until after this year’s tournament at the earliest, although NCAA President Charlie Baker and leaders of the major conferences still favor making that happen.

Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball operations, said Thursday at the organization’s headquarters that discussions around expansion were ongoing, but there would be no serious meetings on the topic until at least after this year’s men’s and women’s Final Fours. The timeline remains fluid.

“They’re focused on this year’s tournaments,” Gavitt said.

Gavitt said he also informed conference commissioners about the expansion Thursday.

In-depth conversations on the topic took place last July, when the committees that oversee March Madness failed to decide whether to expand to a field of 72 or 76 teams. The men’s field has consisted of 68 teams since 2011 and had previously grown to 64 teams in 1985. The women’s tournament expanded to 68 teams in 2022.

Expansion proponents are focusing on participation, starting with a 2023 recommendation from the Division I Transformation Committee to adjust the fields for all NCAA postseason championships to include at least 25 percent of schools that participate in a given sport. The field of 68 teams represents less than 20 percent – ​​a number that is shrinking as Division I continues to grow.

Television money stood in the way of expansion. The NCAA’s rights deal with CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery for the men’s tournament brings in more than $1 billion a year for the association and will continue through 2032, but networks are not required to increase rights fees for a larger tournament. (Also, WBD is in the early stages of a potential sale of parts or all of the company.)

NCAA officials worked with these partners to find ways, through sponsorships, to generate the revenue needed to cover the cost of adding more teams and hosting more games.

“We’re still talking to the different players in this matter,” Baker told reporters Thursday. “I’ve always said that I think there are very good reasons to expand the tournament. So I would like to see it expand.”