NCAA chief Dan Gavitt has admitted that a decision on expanding the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments is not expected anytime soon.

As the regular season wraps up after another thrilling year, anticipation is mounting for the end-of-season tournament. This event will see some of college basketball’s brightest stars compete to become the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s national champions.

The current March Madness format of 68 teams has been in place since 2011, an increase from the 64-team format introduced in 1985. However, due to the growing popularity of college basketball, there have been calls for further expansion. Suggestions include increasing the number of competitors to 72 or 76 in future editions. Yet, there is little clarity on whether this will happen soon.

Gavitt recently provided an update on the situation, but his news may disappoint many. He confessed that he doesn’t anticipate a vote on any changes to the competition’s format in the near future.

“It’s not taken in a lighthearted way at all because of the success of the tournaments and how important they are to college basketball overall,” Gavitt told CBS Sports. “Expansion, even in a modest level, is complex, more complex than, I think, has been recognized and reported, because it is expensive.”

Gavitt, who has served on the NCAA board since 2013, hinted that a vote later in the spring could potentially allow for changes by 2026, but noted that adjustments in game operation and travel would be necessary.

Dan Gavitt

NCAA chief Dan Gavitt has conceded that a decision on whether to expand the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments is unlikely to be made anytime soon ( 

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This year marks the 40th men’s March Madness since the expansion to 64 teams in 1985, and the women’s tournament celebrates its 31st year with at least 64 teams since 1994. While Gavitt expressed reservations about expanding the field, he’s more open to the idea now than in the past.

The landscape of college basketball has shifted with NIL deals, conference realignment, and the transfer portal, yet Gavitt believes men’s basketball is particularly well-equipped to adapt. “There’s no sport that is deeper overall and has more parity than men’s college basketball,” he observed. “There’s great basketball played at every level in men’s basketball right now. So I think it’s important to keep the tournament contemporary and relevant, based on what is going on in college athletics.”

While there’s buzz about the potential expansion of both men’s and women’s tournaments, Gavitt also weighed in on the chance that March Madness might not grow. “The most important thing to get across, this is definitely not a fait accompli,” he said on the Eye on College Basketball podcast. “The recommendation to not expand the tournaments is absolutely a potential outcome here in the short-term.”