After previous speculation that it would happen, it did happen on Thursday.

The NCAA Tournament is officially expanding from 68 to 76 games for the 2026-27 version of the event.

Some fans will certainly criticize the move, as it's another deviation from tradition in college sports. Other fans will laud the move, as it means a greater chance for teams to make the tournament and more games for fans to watch.

According to Pete Thamel of ESPN's initial reporting, there are eight new teams added to the tournament, bumping the field from 68 to 76 teams, as we just said. The currently named "First Four" would expand to 12 games, featuring 24 teams before the first Thursday of the tournament.

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

For the basic math of it all:

76 teams in the tournament. 

24 playing in the "First 12"

52 teams not playing in the "First 12"

52 non-playing teams + 12 winners = 64 team traditional bracket

Nicole Auerbach of NBC Sports reports that the "First 12" games will feature six games of automatic qualifiers and six games of at-large teams.

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 reporting indicates 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.

Not really, other than any financial boon. The UConn men and women's programs are so good that the odds of them being in position 69-76 for the NCAA Tournament is not that great. But in theory, should one of them have a down year, these additional selections will add a new avenue to make the tournament. 

But again, the Huskies do not aspire to be in that spot.

What's more likely to help UConn is the indirect benefit. Teams that end up having to play in those "First 12" games will be more tired by the time they get to UConn in subsequent rounds, and there will be more tape on those teams for UConn coaches to review and scout.

The Huskies men's head coach was a guest on the Field of 68 on Thursday and made one point for, and one against, the expansion. 

--“I’m like 80, 85% coming around to it,” UConn men’s head coach Dan Hurley said Thursday on The Field of 68. “As long as it doesn’t make it tougher for the teams that earn the higher seeds. As long as you don’t get to a point where you’ve got like a four or a five seed and you now have got to win seven games to win this tournament. This tournament is hard enough to win six games without something going bad.”

--"I loved the exclusivity of it. I loved the fact that it was a hard tournament to qualify for. The best sporting events, you actually have to have difficulty qualifying for. Everyone loves the Masters. Obviously, there’s tradition, there’s history. But people love the Masters because there's no bombers out there, there’s no bad golfers out there. You have to qualify for it. The NCAA, you don’t want it to do anything that is going to take away from the qualification or the importance of the regular season where you actually have to have a really good season to make the tournament. … I don't like it from that standpoint."

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