On Thursday, the NCAA officially announced that both the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments will expand from 68 teams to 76 teams. After the official announcement, several outlets released their post-expansion mock brackets, and Memphis was absent on several projections.
The expansion will change the “first four” that has kicked off the NCAA Tournament since 2011. The first Tuesday and Wednesday of the NCAA Tournament will now be called the “opening round” and will feature 12 games, featuring six at-large games and six automatic qualifier games.
The games will be played as triple-headers on Tuesday and Wednesday, and they will be split between Dayton and a second location that has yet to be determined. The move means all 16 seeds must win an opening round game before playing the No. 1 seed, and four of the 15 seeds will play for two spots in the first round against a No. 2 seed.
The change will add more at-large teams, and the belief is that those spots will go to more power conference teams instead of the mid-majors. On Friday, Penny Hardaway was asked about the changes to the NCAA Tournament during an interview with Dave Woloshin on Wolo & Friends”, and it sounds like Hardaway also thinks the change will be more beneficial for teams in the top five conferences.
“It’s such a great tournament,” Hardaway said. “I hate to mess with it, but since they’ve already made the changes, I think it will help the Power Five more. I don’t think it will help the mid-majors more. But, I mean, I’m happy if it helps the entire college experience for more teams to get in.”
After the expansion was officially announced, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, CBS Sports’ David Cobb and the NCAA’s Andy Katz all released bracket projections with 76 teams. All three included only one team from the American Conference, but none had Memphis as the conference representative.
Both Lunardi and Cobb went with Wichita State to win the American and make the tournament, while Katz tabbed South Florida to win and make the field.
It’s not a huge surprise that Memphis isn’t included in the brackets after finishing the season 13-19 last season. Hardaway also hasn’t completed the 2026-27 roster, and there are still holes in the frontcourt that must be addressed.
The Tigers will face a tough non-conference schedule, including games against Texas, Baylor and Louisville, so they will have an opportunity to make the tournament with a good non-conference and a strong conference showing. After losing in the first round of the conference tournament, Memphis will have a lot to prove with a mostly new roster.