Approved Thursday by multiple NCAA committees and boards, the change adds eight teams to each field and replaces the men's Dayton-based First Four with a 12-game Opening Round in two cities.
On the women's side, 12 Opening Round games will be held across 12 campus host sites before the 64-team first round, with 24 teams split between lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and at-large entrants.
The move, effective for 2027, follows years of debate over broader championship access amid conference realignment, while the traditional 64-team first round and later rounds remain unchanged in both tournaments.
Will adding eight more teams create more Cinderella stories or just benefit the powerhouse conferences already dominating college basketball?
Is the NCAA trading the prestige of March Madness and the regular season's meaning for more television revenue?