Prez Charlie Baker still wants to ad at-large bids to NCAA Tournament

NCAA president Charlie Baker rolled out the red carpet ahead of the Selection Committee exercise to set the top 16 seeds in the men's tournament field this weekend and couldn't help but dream of a bigger dance.

Baker and members of the Selection Committee are running their annual bracket stacking drill to be released Saturday with the public finding out where the NCAA sees the top 16 seeds in the tournament at this stage of the season.

The field will not increase in size in March. The men's and women's tournament field remains at 68 for 2026. But 2027 could bring a boost in field size to 72 or more, Baker has said.

"I think there's some very good reasons to expand the tournament, so I would like to see it expand," Baker said on Thursday in a session with select media, as detailed by tournament TV partner CBS, a network making headlines about coverage -- and non-coverage -- of news events and interviews. "You have to remember that some of the folks we're talking to are going through some pretty interesting corporate conversations of their own. And I think for us, we accept and acknowledge that, but we're still talking."

Debate remains around how to structure a bracket growing by as many as eight spots. Baker said the number of at-large bids awarded -- currently 36 -- is not enough. But he doesn't want to fiddle with the 32 at-large bids going to conference and conference tournament champions to satisfy the "bubble" teams that might be labeled the "last four out" on Selection Sunday.

"It puts some other really good teams that probably might belong there," Baker said of the push to increase at-large bids. "But it also protects the AQs, right? Because I don't want to end up in a situation where people say we need to do something about the AQs because we're keeping too many good teams out of the tournament."

--Field Level Media