NCAA expands March Madness field to 76 teams for men and women

College basketball is entering a new era with a larger bracket. The National Collegiate Athletic Association has announced that both the men's and women's Division I tournament fields will expand to 76 teams this season. This increase moves the field size up from 68 participants. The men's draw has not grown since 2011, when it added four teams to the 64-slot format. The women's bracket last expanded in 2022, rising from 64 to 68 teams.

The NCAA cited participation rates as the primary driver for the change. Before this expansion, only 18% of Division I schools earned automatic or at-large bids. That figure represented the lowest participation rate among major team sports in the United States. With the new 76-team format, the percentage of schools making the tournament rises to 21%. The change affects more than 360 Division I programs across both genders.

Wisconsin men's head coach Greg Gard supported the move. He noted that college basketball has one of the lowest participation percentages in college sports. Gard compared the expansion to professional leagues like the NFL, NBA, and MLB, which all increased their playoff structures to include more teams. He described the change as beneficial for the sport's competitive balance.

The new format eliminates the traditional First Four games in Dayton, Ohio. Instead, an opening round will feature 24 teams. This group consists of the 12 lowest-seeded conference tournament winners and the 12 lowest-seeded at-large teams. Six conference winners and six at-large teams will advance from this round to join the main bracket of 64. In the men's tournament, Wichita, Kansas, will serve as a second host site for these opening games alongside Dayton. For the women's tournament, 12 of the 16 host schools for the main rounds will also host one opening-round game.

The men's tournament begins on Tuesday, March 16. Three games will be played in each host city that day. Another three games will occur in each city on March 17. The round of 64 games for men will take place on March 18 and March 19. The round of 32 games are scheduled for March 20 and March 21. Host cities for these early rounds include Pittsburgh, Omaha, Fort Worth, Spokane, Charlotte, Minneapolis, Louisville, and Sacramento.

The men's regional rounds will be held in San Antonio, Los Angeles, Kansas City, and New York. These games are scheduled for March 25 through March 28. The men's Final Four will take place at Ford Field in Detroit on April 3 and April 5. The women's tournament follows a different structure, with top 16 seeds hosting the round of 64 and round of 32 games. Those games will occur from March 19 to March 22.

The women's regional rounds will be hosted by Philadelphia and Las Vegas. Each city will host two regions from March 26 to March 29. The women's Final Four is scheduled for April 2 and April 4 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. The new schedule and format apply to the 2025-2026 season, marking the first year of the 76-team era for both tournaments.