Is expansion of NCAA Tournament definitely on the way? Who’s behind it?

“The inevitable expansion of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.”

Amid the upheaval surrounding college athletics currently, expansion of the NCAA’s most famous and lucrative product — the NCAA men’s basketball tournament — is all but certain to be coming, Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported.

In a wide-reaching examination of the current state of college sports, Dellenger went in depth on the future of the NCAA Tournament, which as recently as 2021 made the NCAA  $1.16 billion. Annually, the association distributes $700 million of that to its member schools.

The thing is, the powers-that-be in college athletics aren’t satisfied with the current iteration of March Madness. They want more.

“We are in the middle of massive change in our industry,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips told Yahoo Sports. “We are working together to eventually come up with a sustainable model for college athletics and we believe that both the CFP and NCAA men’s basketball tournament needs a holistic look.”

Per Dellenger, over the last few weeks “high-ranking college leaders took the initial step in exploring significant change … to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.”

That change would be expansion, a way to get more power conference programs (which in basketball includes the Big East) into the tournament.

As reported by Dellenger, power conference commissioners recently met with NCAA president Charlie Barker and “were transparent about their desire for more access in a 68-team field that includes 32 automatic qualifying spots — 27 of which go to non-power leagues.”

“I want to see the best teams competing for a national championship, no different than (the Big Ten and SEC) want to see in football,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark told Yahoo Sports. “I’m not sure that is currently happening.”

Baker was “receptive” to the idea, though how exactly to open more at-large spots for power programs remains a question. Is the easiest solution to simply eliminate automatic qualifying spots to small-conference champions? Or must you grow the field to add more at-large bids?

There also remains an issue of dealing with broadcast partners.

Paramount Global (CBS) and Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT, TBS) are the current broadcast partners of the NCAA Tournament, and per The Associated Press’ Ralph D. Russo, the current contract runs through 2032.

“I think the major stumbling block in the near term to expanding the NCAA men’s basketball tournament is the broadcast partners have a contract through 2032, and no great desire to pay for a bigger tournament,” Russo wrote on X.

This isn’t the first time that expansion of the NCAA Tournament has been discussed recently.

Last July, the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee talked about expanding the tournament, though at that time expansion was not viewed as something that would happen in the immediate future.

“The committee must be good stewards for the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship,” Dan Gavitt, NCAA senior vice president of basketball, told ESPN. “They are committed to doing their due diligence looking at a few different models to make an informed decision that’s in the best interests of the championship, and that may very well include deciding against expansion. … The committee and staff will continue studying options and gathering feedback from various constituents. Whether the tournament expands or not remains to be seen.”

As reported by Dellenger, though, it seems that expansion of the NCAA Tournament is more and more likely to happen, if almost inevitable at this point — the latest proposed change in a sea of change affecting collegiate sports.