Big Change Coming to March Madness

March Madness is poised to get a little more crowded. ESPN reports the NCAA is in the final stages of bumping both the men's and women's basketball tournaments from 68 to 76 teams, and the change is on track to kick in next season. Various NCAA committees still need to sign off, but one source called those approvals largely procedural. "Play-in" games would get packed into Tuesday and Wednesday of the tournament's first week, with the traditional 64-team bracket starting as usual on Thursday.

At the Athletic, an analysis by Brendan Marks sounds a note of caution. He looks at how the larger field would have played out this year, noting that a team with a record just one game over .500 (Auburn) would have made the cut of 76. "Fans, inevitably, will still tune in for an expanded (yet watered-down) first round," he writes. "But it's very much to be determined what level of college basketball they'll actually be watching." The move is reportedly driven by power conferences seeking more at-large spots.