The NCAA Tournament is undergoing its biggest change in more than 40 years as the field grows from 68 to 76 for the 2026-2027 season, which tips off Sunday night with a game between Notre Dame and Villanova in Rome. It's the most significant expansion to college basketball's postseason since the tournament grew from 48 teams to 64 teams in 1985. While expansion from 64 to 65 in 2001 and 68 in 2011 created pre-first-round action, this step takes it to a new level.
The newly dubbed "Opening Round" will replace what was previously known as the First Four and feature 12 total games. Dayton, Ohio will still serve as one host site for the preliminary action, like it did for the First Four. It will be joined in that venture by Wichita, Kansas.
Both cities will host a total of six games apiece across the Tuesday and Wednesday following Selection Sunday. By Thursday, the bracket for the first round will look the same as it always does on Thursday of the tournament's first weekend. But the path to get there will look and feel different.
Under the old format, 60 of the 64 teams that played in the first round started their tournament journeys in the first round. Now, just 52 of 64 teams that will be in action on Thursday/Friday for the first round will be beginning there. The other 12 will be coming off Opening Round victories.
What will it all look like? With the 2026-27 season just days away, here is our preseason Bracketology projection. While Florida landed at No. 1 in the AP preseason poll, Duke is the No. 1 overall seed in CBS Sports preseason Bracketology.
The Blue Devils return four key rotation players from a 35-3 team and supplemented the group with the nation's No. 2 freshman class and No. 11 transfer haul. Among the newcomers are preseason All-ACC first-teamer John Blackwell from Wisconsin and 17-year-old phenom Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje, who will team with Patrick Ngongba to give Duke an imposing front court. The Blue Devils confirmed their promise in the preseason by crushing Tennessee 103-64 and then edging Kansas 90-84 on the road.
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