The expansion of the men's and women's NCAA Tournaments from 68 to 76 teams next season means the First Four games on the Tuesday and Wednesday after Selection Sunday will be replaced by 12 games that will be called the March Madness Opening Round. Winners of those games will advance to the 64-team bracket.
The lowest-seeded 12 automatic qualifiers as seeded by the selection committees will play in half of the opening round games and the other six games will match the 12 lowest-seeded at-large teams.
Teams will continue to be paired to face the opponent nearest to them on the committees’ overall seed lists. For example, seed 75 may play seed 76 in one opening round game, while the lowest-seeded at-large team may face the second-to-lowest-seeded at-large team.
Exceptions could be made, for example, to avoid a regular-season rematch or for geographic purposes.
Men's tournament
The opening round games will be the Tuesday and Wednesday after Selection Sunday in a location to be announced later and in Dayton, Ohio, which has been the traditional home of the First Four. There will be three games each day at each site.
Recommended for you
Among at-large teams, two games will match No. 11 seeds and four will match No. 12s. Among the automatic qualifiers, two games will match No. 15s and four will match No. 16s.
Women's tournament
The details are the same except that opening round games will be held the Wednesday and Thursday after Selection Sunday on the campuses of 12 of the top 16 seeds selected to host the first and second rounds.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.