Sources: The NCAA is introducing new models for basketball tournaments that would expand the field by 4 or 8 teams

NAPLES, Fla. – College basketball moved one step closer this week to the expanded NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

NCAA officials on Wednesday presented to the Division I conference commissioners at least two models for an expanded field, one with four additional teams and another with eight additional teams, the commissioners told Yahoo Sports. Officials declined to speak publicly about the models.

The models would expand the 68-team field to 72 or 76 teams, with additional at-large selections as well as at least one additional First Four spot. Any expansion will begin, at the earliest, in the 2025-2026 season. If the men’s event expands, the women’s tournament is likely to witness a similar expansion.

Dan Gavitt, NCAA vice president of men’s basketball, unveiled the models in a presentation Wednesday at the annual summer commissioners meeting. In the culmination of months of work, Gavitt laid out the possibilities for what commissioners believe An inevitable expansion of the men’s event – A movement that was mostly supported by power conferences, which Yahoo Sports reported in February.

As a way to avoid eliminating any of the 28 small conferences’ automatic qualifiers — a time-honored concept popular with fans — the NCAA and conference leaders are aiming to add at-large selections as has been done in the past. The most recent expansion, in 2011, added four at-large teams and created the top four teams in Dayton, Ohio, where a pair of 16-seeds and a pair of at-large selections meet in play-in games.

Any new expansion of the field is expected to create at least one additional First Four site, possibly in a western time zone. But expanding the tournament – ​​even by just four teams – is a complex issue.

Officials plan to keep the current lineup of 64 teams. Since the winners of the play game need a place in this structure, space must be provided. More seeds 10-12, who were originally in the 64-team bracket, could find themselves having to win play-in games on Tuesday or Wednesday to advance to the first round on Thursday or Friday.

There are more difficult decisions ahead as well. Officials need to decide whether to move more minor conference automatic qualifiers to play-in games — a sensitive topic for some low-resource league commissioners.

There’s something else, too: Will additional games bring in more revenue? It remains an unanswered question. CBS and Turner are not required to increase the amount they pay, according to those with knowledge of the contract.

Gavitt’s model for the potentially expanded field is one step in an approval process that could take several more months as commissioners explore changing what is widely known as the most popular event in college athletics — and in American sports. Various groups are scheduled to study expansion models throughout this summer and fall, including meetings of the NCAA Basketball Oversight Committee next week and a meeting of the NCAA Basketball Selection Committee scheduled for next month.

The basketball tournament is the NCAA’s largest and most important revenue generator, keeping the organization itself afloat as well as helping to support hundreds of small college athletic departments. As part of the tournament’s television deal with CBS and Turner that runs through 2032, the NCAA annually distributes about $700 million to its schools, both in base amounts and in units earned by advancing in the event.

While much of that revenue goes to power conferences, leaders of the Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Big 12 have publicly expressed a desire to expand the field of 36 overall picks to open a path for more of their schools. This spring, the commissioners held multiple meetings with NCAA President Charlie Baker about expanding the tournament, strongly encouraging the NCAA to find a way to grow the field.

“I want to see the best teams compete for a national championship, no different [the Big Ten and SEC] “I want to see football,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark told Yahoo Sports in February. “I’m not sure what’s going on right now.”

SEC Commissioner Jim Phillips believes a “thorough review” of the tournament is necessary, and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey has proposed expanding the field several times over the past two years.

Expansion is nothing new for this event. In 1975, the tournament expanded to 32 teams to allow a second team to represent the conference in addition to its champion. In 1979, the number of teams increased to 40 teams and then to 48 in 1980. In 1985, the tournament moved to 64 teams, and in 2001, the tournament expanded by one team to create a play-in game before the 2011 expansion to 68 teams.