Though basically nobody asked for it, NCAA Tournament expansion is coming. The plan is for the men’s and women’s tournaments to expand to 76 teams starting in 2027, and as of Thursday, the talks are in their final stages.
Nothing is slowing down the insatiable need for more inventory to sell in the next TV deal, so this deal is happening whether fans and coaches like it or not, and spoiler alert: neither group is too excited. That includes former Kentucky head coach John Calipari, and though he and BBN have been adversaries for some time now, this issue may be common ground.
“I am a big believer in the idea that if it’s not broke, don’t fix it, and I think that applies to the NCAA Tournament,” Calipari told CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander, one of the most outspoken critics of tournament expansion. Calipari had a caveat, though, and while he’s fallen victim to Cinderella a few more times than Kentucky fans would have liked, he hopes she keeps getting invited to the Big Dance.
Shoutout to Coach Cal. Real one. https://t.co/QaKWhUaTrI pic.twitter.com/kLyw564U5E
— Ryan Hammer🔨 (@ryanhammer09) May 7, 2026
John Calipari advocates for more mid-major spots, which will never happen
The entities that want to see the NCAA Tournament expand are the Power Conferences, specifically the Big Ten and the SEC, which want even more of their teams to make the field. So, that’s almost certainly how this expansion will play out. Rather than the mid-major potential Cinderella stories that make the tournament great, getting an opportunity with the eight additional spots, they will almost certainly go to uninteresting .500 Power Conference teams.
Calipari would prefer that those spots go to the smaller schools, which often miss out on an at-large bid into the tournament if they trip up in their respective conference tournaments. That’s often been the only redeeming argument for expansion, but it likely won’t be the outcome. And even if it is, as Calipari, who once led UMass to the Final Four out of the Atlantic 10, hopes, that’s still not a good enough reason to mess with the perfection of the NCAA Tournament.
There are so many reasons not to expand. For one, it’s hard to argue that the 76th team in the field really deserves to play for a national championship and has any chance of winning it, but I guess you could say that about the 68-team field. The biggest issue, and potential impediment to fans’ enjoyment of March Madness, is just the logjam of play-in games that will muddy a significant portion of the bracket and leave a very small window of time to fill out a bracket on Thursday morning.
Is risking the ubiquity of your event worth the marginal profit gained by adding more play-in games? Certainly not. Would it be better, as Calipari supposes, if more of those spots go to mid-major teams than the 14th-best team in the SEC? Certainly. Will that actually happen? No shot.
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