What would a 76 team men’s bracket have looked like in 2026?

With the news just announced on Tuesday night of the NCAA Tournament expanding from 68 teams to 76 teams in 2026 in both the men’s and women’s events, there has been a lot of controversy about the change on social media. Meanwhile, there has not been much discussion about how the new format would look for this.

There would be six games each on Tuesday and Wednesday, called the “Opening Round” which would most likely be held in two different cities instead of what has been the norm since 2011, playing the “First Four” in Dayton, Ohio.

Several cities would be likely for a western home for these games, but most likely would be Las Vegas because of its home as a travel hub.

There would be an imbalance between sites in 2026 in this scenario as there would be more teams playing in Vegas on Tuesday than Wednesday because of the western site on Thursday in Portland. Portland would have gotten three winners of these opening round games.

I flipped South Florida and Akron as South Florida was hosting the regional in Tampa this year and would have played on their home site which is not allowed. Texas Tech and Akron was an actual matchup in Tampa.

I also flipped Furman and Queens as Furman would have been playing in their home site in Greenville which is not allowed. Instead Queens is playing in Greenville while Furman would be sent to San Diego.

You would need most likely two TV networks for the opening round, probably TBS or TNT along with truTV with multiple games going at the same time. Here is the modeled bracket with the updates for a 76 team field. Those are in bold from what the actual bracket is. I will also do one for the women’s tourney.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Lngazx4UliG3fJ-Xu06_ZHwGipfvh-RlRdOpej8GPXM/edit?usp=drivesdk