NCAA sets April deadline for decision on basketball tournament expansion, president Charlie Baker says LAS VEGAS — After more than a year of deliberation, the NCAA's slow march toward expanding the men's basketball tournament is finally approaching a breaking point. A definitive call on whether to grow the men's field from the current 68 teams to as many as 76 in the NCAA Tournament for the 2026-27 season must be made by April, NCAA president Charlie Baker told a small group of reporters Tuesday following his appearance at the Intercollegiate Athletics Forum. 從68隊擴編到76隊 NCAA 主席 Charlie Baker 在透露給媒體 "We are certainly still working on it and I believe that we have a window and our window probably gets us to about April," Baker said. "And we're still talking to CBS and [Warner Bros. Discovery]." 明年四月前是決定的時間 The focus on expanding to 76 teams rather than 72 began in the summer. The preferred format includes 12 opening-round games played on Tuesday and Wednesday of the tournament's first week at two separate sites. Yahoo! Sports first detailed that structure and the particulars of the format in October. 12場開幕賽事 分在兩個不同的城市 "The logistics in the early rounds are not uncomplicated if we expand," Baker said. 有在認真思考 開幕週的後勤準備並不困難 貝克現在說 Travel remains one of the biggest headaches. Twenty-four teams would need to relocate immediately after Selection Sunday, with some coming off conference title games just hours earlier. Delays tied to plane shortages, crew availability and weather have plagued the tournament in recent years. North Carolina famously missed its planned press conference on the eve of its game on a Tuesday night last March because of travel issues. 交通是最大的問題 因為如此一來 24支球隊就必須在大選日之後立刻啟程前往加賽輪的場地 "The other [issue] is just can you get everybody in the place they need to be in time for them to practice," Baker said. "This is like a starter's pistol. It goes off Sunday ... and people are playing Tuesday." 球隊移動後還需要安排練習時間 如此一來就只剩週一一天 A decision by executives has been delayed several times since discussions formally began in July 2024. Baker previously set an informal deadline in August, which was later pushed to "sometime this fall." Both dates came and went with no decision, though there is more clarity on which expansion format (76 instead of 72) executives prefer. 2024 年七月已經討論過一次 The last major expansion came in 2011 with the debut of the First Four. If approved, this next expansion will be the biggest change to March Madness in more than a decade. 瘋三最後一次擴編是2011 也就是First Four 系列賽的初登場 從64->68 ----- Sent from JPTT on my iPhone --

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