The NCAA announced on Monday that it will not expand the March Madness beyond 68 teams for the 2025-26 college basketball season. The idea of expansion, potentially to 72 or even 76 teams, had previously been floated by NCAA President Charlie Baker. However, after some deliberation, the governing body has voted to suspend those plans.

The news has sparked a wave of relief and excitement among some college basketball fans, many of whom had voiced opposition to expanding the tournament. Reactions quickly poured in following the announcement, with these fans celebrating the decision to stick with the traditional format.

“Wow, folks in positions of power finally made a good decision. Color me shocked,” One fan said.

“Prayers have been answered,” said another.

“The NCAA made the right decision? Is this real?” another fan said.

Some fans believed that the existing structure works just fine, and there’s no need to expand any further.

“Why would we expand any further? We might as well just play a regular season'” One fan said.

“Great move. Don’t need to fix what isn’t broken,” another fan said.

According to the NCAA‘s Dan Gavitt, while expansion won’t happen for the 2025-26 season, discussions about expanding the tournament in the future are expected to continue.

“Expanding the tournament fields is no longer being contemplated for the 2026 men’s and women’s basketball championships,” Gavitt said in a statement. “However, the committees will continue conversations on whether to recommend expanding to 72 or 76 teams in advance of the 2027 championships.”

The excitement surrounding the decision to halt expansion might be short-lived, as Gavitt indicated that talk will resume towards possible future expansion. Fans of the traditional 68-team format can enjoy at least one more season of March Madness the way they’ve always known it.

NCAA president Charlie Baker points to logistics as the biggest challenge for tournament expansion

In a statement made back in July, NCAA President Charlie Baker pointed out one major hurdle in the push for expanding March Madness. According to him, there’s still a lot to figure out regarding logistics.

“The tournament has to start after the conference championships are over,” he said. “And right now, Selection Sunday happens like two hours after the last tournament game ends and has to finish by the Tuesday before the Masters.

“There’s not a lot of room there. Any expansion, we’re going to have to figure out how to put it in and then logistically how to make it work.”

There are currently no clear plans outlining how the expansion would work. However, signs point to it eventually happening, as there is an intention to revisit and resume deliberations on the issue in the future.