CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Expansion might be coming to March Madness.
In July, NCAA committees for Division I men’s and women’s basketball discussed the possibly of expansion — potentially to 72 or 76 teams — at length, but concluded those meetings without an official vote. While NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said that expanding the tournament for as soon as 2026 remains a “viable” outcome, the size of arguably the most popular postseason competition in college athletics remains in limbo with people on both sides loudly arguing for or against it.
As media days for the preseason of college football continue this week, the expansion of March Madness remains a hot topic. ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips fielded multiple questions on Tuesday at the Hilton Charlotte Uptown about it.
“Basketball is the crown jewel of all of our championships, I think,” Phillips said. “So we have a responsibility and obligation to protect it. It’s in a really good spot right now at 68… Logistically it has to make sense. I think it would be difficult to push it through this year if it expands. Who knows? There’s still time to do that, but I want to do it in a really thoughtful, measured way.”
The ACC polled its men’s and women’s basketball coaches a few weeks ago about conference expansion. During his press conference, Phillips said, “Our men’s coaches are more in favor of expansion. Our women’s coaches are more against expansion. It’s almost like a split in the conference as it’s related to that.”
Jackie Carson — the ACC’s Senior Associate Commissioner for Women’s Basketball — backed that up Wednesday, telling SB Nation, “Pretty much the majority (of ACC women’s basketball coaches) was like, ‘We don’t want expansion.’”
She pointed to a few differences between the two tournaments as potential reasons why there is a split among the men’s and women’s basketball coaches in the conference. A big one is that the men’s First Four is played at a singular neutral site in Dayton, Ohio, where the women’s tournament hosts its First Four games at campus sites. Theoretically, an expansion to 72 or more teams would create more of these play-in-type games, adding more logistical headaches for women’s programs who have earned the right to host during the tournament’s opening weekend.
This past season, four ACC teams were top 16 seeds and hosted March Madness games: North Carolina, Duke, N.C. State and Notre Dame. The Tar Heels and Fighting Irish both hosted First Four contests.
“So, if you expand, what does that look like now? Our First Four games are on campuses and they’re not highly attended. It’s not like everyone’s going to Dayton on the men’s side,” Carson said. “There’s a lot of messiness that comes with it because of our format currently. Now, if that changed, maybe that would also spark some of our coaches’ thoughts. But right now, trying to play and travel as a First Four is an absolute nightmare.”
N.C. State head coach Wes Moore has a lot of questions about expansion too and remains a bit undecided on the subject. In 27 years as a Division I head coach, Moore has taken his teams at Chattanooga and N.C. State to March Madness 18 times, including each of the past eight consecutive tournaments.
“You know, I kind of went back and forth between staying where we’re at, maybe expanding to 72,” Moore said Wednesday morning during a Zoom with reporters. “I’m good with whatever they decide. What I was trying to find out — and I never really got an answer — is, what would the bracket look like? You know, how much would it add? How would those other four teams fit in?”
Carson also questions what tournament expansion would mean for unit distribution, which just arrived for women’s March Madness, 34 years after the men’s tournament got it. In 2025, for the first time ever, women’s college basketball programs that played in and won NCAA Tournament games were given a share of the revenue pie — generated mostly by television deals — based on their performance. This past year, one unit in women’s basketball was worth about $113,000.
Conferences receive money from units and divide it among member schools. However, for the ACC, women’s basketball unit distribution is also part of the conference’s competitive success initiative, which rewards individual schools for postseason success in an eat-what-you-kill type of model. Previously, only football and men’s basketball were included in that, but the ACC proactively set up parameters for women’s basketball to be included too when unit payments began.
Still, expansion of the tournament means there will be more mouths to feed when it comes to divvying up the revenue pie for unit payments. Moreover, there was a report from Front Office Sports which indicated that more games in the women’s NCAA Tournament wouldn’t yield more money from media rights from ESPN.
“We just got units. Are we adding more people that take out of that pot? Is it the same pot of money? I don’t need to split it anymore,” Carson said. “And honestly, for ACC women’s basketball, our coaches are confident that they can get into the tournament. So I don’t necessarily need more teams to be able to get in. The teams that were on the bubble know what they need to do to be able to get into the tournament next year.
“I think our coaches are pretty confident that it’s been a phenomenal tournament experience. Why change it? Don’t fix something that’s not broken… For me, March Madness and the Olympics are like the pinnacle of sports. Why are we touching them?”
Another element of the women’s NCAA Tournament that some want changed is the format of the regional round. Currently, as it has been for the past three seasons, the four Sweet 16 and Elite Eight regional quadrants of the bracket are played at two sites. In 2026, those games will be played in Fort Worth, Texas, and Sacramento, California.
Despite loud complaints from longtime coaches like LSU’s Kim Mulkey, Vic Schaefer of Texas and UConn’s Geno Auriemma, NCAA President Charlie Baker shot down the idea of going back to a more traditional format of four regional sites — like the men have — back in April at the Final Four. Baker cited a potential re-bidding process as a hurdle to going back to four sites, and added that the increased attendance at the double regionals has been a success.
In the ACC, there seems to be less of a consensus among coaches regarding that element of the tournament.
“Personally, I like two regionals. I like fanbases coming in and seeing different styles of basketball,” Carson said. “As a former coach, I can say a coach is going to complain about something that doesn’t complement them. So like, if one of the regionals is near Storrs, Connecticut, I’m sure Geno would have a different take… I also think for women’s basketball, there’s something about a city that wants you there. And sometimes it may not work out geographically that one’s on the East Coast and one’s on the West Coast and one’s on the north and one’s the south. I think we’re just constantly trying to figure out ways to evolve.”
Carson added that ACC coaches “haven’t had one thing to say about” the double-regional format to her.
Moore of N.C. State has taken his team to far-flung regionals in each of the past two seasons. The Wolfpack went to Portland, Oregon in 2024 — and then advanced to the Final Four — and went to Spokane, Washington in 2025.
“I see their side of it, definitely,” Moore said of the complaints from Mulkey, Schaefer and Auriemma. “So we’ve traveled across the country both times, as did Connecticut. And that is hard, you know, not only the three-hour time difference, but then when you go to the Final Four, there’s a pretty quick turnaround.”
But Moore also remembers how it used to be. In the final year of four regional sites in the women’s tournament in 2022, N.C. State — as a No. 1 seed — were sent to the Bridgeport, Connecticut regional and faced No. 2 UConn in their backyard. The Wolfpack lost to the Huskies in double overtime in the Elite Eight.
“Even though it wasn’t on their home court, we definitely knew where we were. So, that was a tough way to go,” Moore said. “I think four (regional sites) would probably be better… But to me, if there’s a local team, you don’t let them play, you know, real close to their campus — maybe find a happy medium.”
