The expanded 76-team NCAA Tournament format has not been officially approved. The consensus is that it will be approved soon and be effective for the 2026-27 basketball season. Alabama Basketball, Florida, and likely six other SEC teams will not be greatly impacted. The other half of SEC basketball teams will be affected, with possibly three or four bubble teams and as many as five teams not being selected.
For discussion purposes, let's presume that Kentucky, Oklahoma, Auburn, and Georgia will be the bubble teams. In an ignominious position below the bubble would be LSU, South Carolina, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State.
With the expected passage of the new format, there should be a new rule: Any team failing to make the 76-team in back-to-back seasons could terminate its coach for cause, with no buyout owed. Of course, that would never happen. Instead, any coach in a power conference who fails to lead a team to the 76-team field should resign out of embarrassment. That will not happen either.
What will happen with the expanded format is that multiple 'not conference champion' teams with losing records will make play-in games. Basketball is a tournament sport, but when losing teams qualify for the NCAA Tournament, the regular season becomes more meaningless.
The 'new' format will increase the number of Tuesday-Wednesday play-in teams from eight to 24. The 12 play-in winners would join the 64-team 'main' bracket on Thursday and Friday.
It has been believed that the NCAA coveted the bigger field because of the anticipated financial return. ESPN's Pete Thamel stated that after discussions with media partners, the NCAA knows the added games will not be a "financial windfall." Fan response has generally been more negative than positive. Coaches of recently excluded teams love the format expansion. Perhaps they don't consider how embarrassing it will be to fail to make the 76-team field.
Much-Ado about nothing for Alabama Basketball
Although May bracketology is almost pointless, a review of recent projections puts Nate Oats and Alabama at 3- or 4-seed odds. Texas has similar projections. Florida, Arkansas, and Tennessee are in a 1-seed or 2-seed range. Missouri, Vanderbilt, and Texas A&M have too-early projections in a 5-seed to 9-seed range.
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