The wildest tournament in sports is set to get a major facelift next year.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Tuesday that the NCAA has put in motion the final steps toward expanding the men’s and women’s March Madness tournaments to 76 teams each.
According to Thamel, discussions have been ongoing for over a year and the expansion is expected to be formally approved by mid-May.
Although the 64-team traditional tournament bracket won’t change, the First Four play-in round will grow from eight teams to 24, meaning that rather than 60 teams earning automatic bids to the tournament, only 52 will get those seeds.
Those new play-in games will take place on the Tuesday and Wednesday before the tourney, and according to CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander, will include all eight 15- and 16-seeds. The other teams included will be a mix, determined by the committee, based on team quality, made up of 11-, 12- and 13-seeds.
In total, the expansion will lead to eight additional games in what will be known as the “opening round,” eliminating the “First Four.” The Thursday and Friday of the opening weekend of the tournament will still be called the “first round.”
Per Thamel, NCAA officials are in the final steps of contracts with media partners after meeting with them last week, but are still awaiting signatures. The NCAA will then need approval from various committees before finalizing the expansion, but “those are just formalities,” a source told ESPN.