More Teams, More Madness?
UConn and Michigan compete during the second half of the NCAA college basketball tournament national championship game at the Final Four, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)
Expansion has been a hot topic in college athletics for years now. It started with conferences, moved to the College Football Playoff—twice—and has now taken hold of March Madness.
ESPN has learned that NCAA officials made the final steps to expand both the men’s and women’s annual college basketball postseason tournaments from a 68-team bracket to a new, 76-team format.
Thought you were ever going to get that perfect bracket? Your odds just got a whole lot worse.
Now, why did this happen?
I blame Auburn fans. The mass uproar caused by Tiger diehards after their (insert record here) team missed out on the tournament this year may have been so annoying that the NCAA just decided to make the bracket bigger.
Let’s be honest—Auburn had zero business making the tournament.
If you know me personally, you know that I am a huge Notre Dame Football fan. And sure, I think we were snubbed from the College Football Playoff this year—by Alabama, not Miami—but you wouldn’t hear me calling for a playoff expansion when things don’t go our way.
But in all seriousness, the real driving force behind this expansion—and all expansion—is the money.
And at this point, that’s not a hot take. It’s just reality.
I feel like I have written about this too many times already. The sheer amount of money in the college sports industry is staggering. The prospect that there can be more is driving the NCAA, the players, and nearly everyone involved to ask ‘okay, how can we make more?’ How can we afford better players for our teams?
More games mean more ad slots. More ad slots mean more revenue.
It’s a simple equation, and everyone involved—networks, conferences, even schools—is chasing it. Some of this is understandable. It’s great that athletes are able to benefit from their talent and hard work. But it sucks that the whole system is becoming income-driven.
We have already seen the effects—just try watching a college football game today. Three years ago, the NCAA implemented a rule change for more running clock time after first downs, which shortened games and gave more room for ads and commercial breaks. Some games are borderline unwatchable, and I cannot tell you how many times I have missed a referee review or a replay because the TV network had switched over to playing ads.
Now imagine that same format applied to March Madness, a tournament that has thrived for decades because of its structure. 68 teams, a clean bracket. Win and advance. The simplicity is what makes it so special.
Sure, expansion means more teams get the chance to play for a national championship, and maybe some of those bubble teams do deserve a shot. If Santa Clara didn’t make it this year, I am sure many of us in the Bronco community would feel happy about this expansion. But jumping to 76 teams doesn’t make the tournament better, it dilutes it.
And for what? A few more games? A few more ads? March Madness doesn’t need fixing. It’s one of the rare things in college sports that still feels pure. But like everything else in the modern NCAA, it’s being stretched; not because it has to be, but because it can be.
And because there’s money to be made.