NCAA Tournament expansion to 76 teams pushes mid-majors to preliminary round

The National Collegiate Athletic Association will expand the men's basketball tournament from 68 to 76 teams beginning with the 2026-2027 season. This marks the largest structural change to the postseason in more than four decades. The new format replaces the traditional First Four games with a 12-game Opening Round.

Dayton, Ohio, and Wichita, Kansas, will host the preliminary action. Each city will host six games across the Tuesday and Wednesday following Selection Sunday. The season opens on Sunday night with a matchup between Notre Dame and Villanova in Rome.

The expansion alters the composition of the first round. Under the previous 68-team format, 60 of the 64 first-round teams began their tournament play in that round. In the new 76-team structure, only 52 of the 64 first-round teams will start there. The remaining 12 will enter the first round after winning an Opening Round game.

CBS Sports preseason bracketology projects Duke as the No. 1 overall seed. The Blue Devils return four key players from a 35-3 season and added a top-ranked freshman class. Newcomers include John Blackwell from Wisconsin and 17-year-old Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje. Duke defeated Tennessee 103-64 and Kansas 90-84 in preseason games.

Florida is projected as a top seed but sits below Duke in the rankings. The Gators face a more difficult conference schedule in the SEC compared to the ACC path for Duke. The projection places Colorado State, West Virginia, LSU, and Baylor as the last four teams remaining in the tournament.

The format change creates a squeeze for mid-major programs. The Pac-12 returns as the 32nd Division I conference, bringing the total number of automatic bids back to 32. Historical data suggests that at least seven of these 32 conferences will produce multiple bids. Last year, eight leagues sent more than one team to the tournament.

If eight conferences produce multiple bids in 2027, 24 leagues will have a single representative. The more likely outcome is that 12 of those 24 single-bid teams will be forced into the Opening Round. Previously, only four single-bid teams played in the preliminary games. Last season, 29 of the 31 automatic qualifiers reached the first round. This year, only 26 automatic qualifiers will remain for the first round, while 38 at-large teams will advance.

The shift means fewer mid-major teams will participate in the traditional first weekend games. The 76-team format allows at-large teams, primarily from high-major conferences, to occupy a larger share of first-round spots. Mid-major teams can still win tournament games, but those victories will occur on Tuesday and Wednesday against other mid-major opponents rather than during the main event weekend.

The preseason projection allocates 13 bids to the SEC, 10 to the Big Ten, and 9 each to the Big 12 and ACC. The Big East receives 5 bids, the Pac-12 receives 3, and the Atlantic 10 receives 2. This distribution reflects the current power conference dominance in the field.