March Madness expansion could be decided 'in next new months' per NCAA president

NCAA President Charlie Baker said Thursday he sees value in expanding the NCAA Tournament by a handful of teams and wants to reach a decision on the matter in the next few months.

Baker spoke during Big 12 spring meetings, where conference leaders are discussing everything from the multibillion-dollar revenue-sharing House settlement to complexities brought on by the transfer portal and name, image and likeness compensation.

Baker discussed the idea of expanding from 68 teams to 72 or 76.

"We’ve had good conversations with CBS and WBD," Baker said, referring to Warner Bros. Discovery, whose holdings include the Turner networks that air NCAA Tournament games. "Our goal here is to try to sort of get to either yes or no sometime in the next few months because there’s a lot of logistical work that would be associated with doing this. If we were to go down this road, you just think about the opening weekends, who has to travel the longest, it gets complicated."

Zach Freemantle of the Xavier Musketeers celebrates as the clock runs out against the Texas Longhorns during the First Four round of the 2025 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. (Photo by Grace Bradley/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

The NCAA Men's tournament expanded from 64 to 68 teams in 2011, with the Women's tournament jumping to 68 teams after the 2020-2021 season, following a review of gender equality between the men's and women's side that also allowed the latter to use "March Madness" branding. The change introduced the First Four round, a set of pre-tournament games where the four lowest-seeded at-large teams and four lowest-seeded conference champions compete for spots in the traditional 64-team bracket.

Baker indicated that the current formula has flaws and