Brad Underwood weighs in on NCAA tournament expansion

CHAMPAIGN (WCIA) — March Madness could be expanding and Illinois head coach Brad Underwood says he’s preparing for a change. NCAA leaders met last month and are expected to discuss once again this month taking the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments from 68 to either 72 or 76 qualifying teams. It’s a complex change that would start as early as the 2025-26 season, according to multiple reports.

The change would not impact the current 64-team bracket, according to the Associated Press, but rather add play-in games. Adding teams complicates travel and scheduling for when and where to host the play-in games. Dayton has been the destination for those ‘First Four’ games in the past but adding a second site would likely be needed. NCAA leadership and conference commissioners are also looking at keeping the tournament at 68 teams. A lot of questions that still need to be answered for Underwood.

“I’m kind of a traditionalist in some sense, I like the format,” Underwood said. “I don’t know if they’ll go to more play-in games, you start running into some timing issues. Do you go on Monday? Do you go on Tuesday? How do teams get there? All those things have to be figured out and it’s a little more complex than just saying we’re going to add some teams but I would expect there to probably be some sort of expansion coming.”

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament last expanded in 2011 going from a field of 64 to 68 teams. The women’s tournament followed suit in 2022.

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