The NCAA continues to be deliberating increasing March Madness on each the boys’s and ladies’s sides to 76 teams for subsequent season — a much-expected improvement that’s been within the works for years.
The NCAA launched a short assertion Tuesday within the wake of an ESPN report that cited unnamed sources saying a call to add eight teams to the bracket is a mere formality that’s anticipated in May.
“Expanding the basketball tournaments would require approval from multiple NCAA committees, including the men’s and women’s basketball committees, and no final recommendations or decisions have been made at this time,” the assertion mentioned.
Earlier this month on the Final Four, NCAA President Charlie Baker mentioned the committees would, the truth is, return to discussing the growth as soon as this yr’s event was over.
The tournaments have been at 68 teams since 2011, when 4 play-in video games had been added to the start of the primary week of play. The new format would add eight extra at-large teams and take eight extra teams out of the principle bracket for play-in video games.
The growth isn’t anticipated to generate much more revenue as a result of it is going to solely add video games early within the first week. The present TV deal runs via 2032 and could be tweaked barely.
Regardless of funds, the growth would give energy conferences extra probabilities to place teams within the bracket — a rising concern as these conferences search extra energy and management over faculty sports activities within the period of identify, picture and likeness compensation and the switch portal.