Yes, we're willing to admit it: North Carolina has lived on the NCAA Tournament bubble for the majority of the last five seasons.
Even with a run to the national title game in that span, the Tar Heels have toyed way too closely with not making the field of 68 teams during the Hubert Davis. In fact, there's at least one season in which fans were in an uproad that UNC even got into the tournament, one that many say was catered by the fact that Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham chaired the committee for that particular season.
Now, the Division I men's and women's basketball committees have officially made a major change to the NCAA Tournament format, one that could've really helped the Davis-led Tar Heels.
The field of teams for the NCAA Tournament are set to expand
Instead of 68 teams making the cut, now, 76 programs will make the cut.
NEW: The D-I men's and women's basketball committees have officially voted to expand the NCAA tournament to 76 teams, @MattNorlander reports. https://t.co/qR2zGzwFbW pic.twitter.com/6OsryvKW2k
— On3 (@On3) May 7, 2026
Obviously, the main objective isn't to get more teams in, it's to capitalize on revenue opportunities. We all know this and don't believe anyone who says otherwise.
However, this has been discussed in recent memory and is set to officially go into effect.
With the new expansion, eight additional teams would be added to the current “First Four” play-in round, typically held on Tuesday and Wednesday before the start of the first round of action. The newly expanded play-in round would then feature 24 teams playing 12 games over two days before the winners join the other 52 teams already in the traditional first-round field that initial weekend.
All 16 seeds and half of the 15 seeds will make up half of the initial 24-team field. The final 12 teams will be a mixture of all the 12 seeds and half of the 11 seeds. The 12 lowest-seeded at-large teams and the 12 lowest-seeded at-large teams will occupy those 24 spots.
To clarify, all this means is that more teams are going to have to play their way into the field of 64.
While every year there are programs that believe they were robbed of a spot in the field, this format will provide more opportunities for these teams to prove their worth. In the case of North Carolina, the hope is that Michael Malone can lead this program to a higher level than we've witnessed in the past five seasons, as living on the NCAA Tournament bubble is far from your traditional UNC basketball standards.
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