As we learned was likely just over a week ago, the NCAA Tournament is officially expanding to 76 teams for the 2026-27 version of the event. This change takes place on both the men's and the women's side and will expand the tournament field by eight teams from the current 68-team event.

While some will argue about the loss of tradition and the watering down of the tournament field, as well as the lessened importance of the regular season, others will certainly benefit. The Syracuse men and women's basketball programs are two sets of people that fall in that group.

Here's what you need to know:

According to original reporting from Pete Thamel of ESPN, there will be eight new teams added to the tournament, bumping the field from 68 to 76 teams as we said. The currently named "First Four" will expand to 12 games, featuring 24 teams in action before the first Thursday of the tournament.

Those 12 winners will advance into the traditional tournament bracket, giving us the 64 teams that we are accustomed to on the first Thursday of the event. 

Nicole Auerbach of NBC Sports adds on Thursday that six of these "First 12" games will feature at-large teams, while six will feature automatic qualifiers.

It appears as if this is being done for two reasons:

1) To get more power conference programs in the at-large pool

2) To make more money at a time when college programs really need it in order to fund NIL, and to keep their athletic departments in tact.

Thamel's initial reporting says there will be a profit from this decision, but it's not expected to be a "financial windfall."

The primary driver of this move hasn't been money, but rather access for at-large bids for power conferences. The expansion has been pushed by power conferences, which have grown throughout the course of the current deal.

It's obvious to see that this rule will make it easier to get into the NCAA Tournament, which will create more revenue and help in visibility and recruiting. 

While Gerry McNamara and Felisha Legette-Jack aspire to have their programs in the top portion of the league that would make the tournament anyways, these eight new slots will likely to go middling power conference programs, which will essentially give the Orange an opportunity each season to make the tournament field, despite what happens in the regular season.

The tournament will still be seen as flawed. Middling power conference teams will make the field while capable mid-majors will still be left on the bubble.

That will still make fans upset and it will make those "First 12" games full of teams that probably don't belong in the tournament, but are being rewarded anyways.

Syracuse will hope to avoid all of this by playing well enough to avoid the "First 12" games.

And of course, six automatic qualifiers will be bounced in the "First 12," making them feel like they didn't really even make the tournament at all.

The ACC released the following statement after the news became official:

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