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NCAA Committee Recommends Expanding March Madness Fields

Jan. 3, 2023
NCAA Committee Recommends Expanding March Madness Fields

NCAA postseason championships, including the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, would be expanded under recommendations made by the NCAA transformation committee.

After nearly a year’s worth of meetings, the transformation committee, charged with reshaping archaic NCAA policies, produced a 40-page final report that was released Tuesday to selected media members. The report will go to the Division I board of directors for consideration at the 2023 NCAA convention in San Antonio next week.

Among the many recommendations is incorporating more teams in NCAA postseason championships. The NCAA should consider expanding championship brackets to accommodate access for 25% of participating teams in the sport, the committee’s report notes.

The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournament encompasses 68 teams, or about 19% of the sport’s 350-some active members. The tournaments would have to expand by about 20 teams—incorporating around 90 total teams—to reach the 25% mark.

The transformation committee’s recommendation is not an official change. Most recommendations will be determined by the individual oversight and governance groups of a particular sport. On the topic of expanding championship events, an initial review by committees will happen by June 2023, and final recommendations will take place by January ’24 for implementation in the ’24–25 championship, the report says. Transformation leaders including cochairs Greg Sankey, the SEC commissioner, and Julie Cromer, the Ohio athletic director, will speak to reporters later Tuesday.

The committee’s report offers a wide range of recommendations, most of them requiring Division I schools to offer more benefits to athletes. For now, roster limits and scholarship limits are not changing. There is also no change to football countable coaches. The committee recommended a review of those categories. Here are some of the highlights of the recommendations, which are split into three categories.


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