NCAA President Reveals Major March Madness Change Likely Coming in 2026

During an appearance at the Big 12 spring meeting in Orlando, Baker announced that he’s already working on a plan for an expanded tournament field as early as next season.

“That would be the goal, to try and do this for next year,” Baker told reporters. “We’ve been talking about 72 and 7 (teams).”

Tournament expansion is something Big 12 are seemingly behind.

Kansas head coach Bill Self admitted that expansion was one of the first things discussed briefly during the spring meeting, and he and his colleagues are on board with an increased tournament field going forward.

In fact, Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark disclosed during the Big 12 Tournament back in March that he’d like to see March Madness swell from 68 to 76 teams.

“The consensus among the coaches—even though it was discussed very little—was we’d be in favor of that,” Self said.

Expansion would allow for leagues like the Big 12, which only had seven teams in the NCAA Tournament this year, to increase national exposure by placing more teams in the field.

The SEC led the way with 14 tournament teams this year, followed by the ACC with nine teams, the Big Ten with eight, and the Big 12 with seven. SEC schools went 22-12 in the tournament, including Florida’s national title win, while the Big 12 went 14-7, the Big Ten 13-8, and the ACC 5-4.