South Carolina women's basketball: What NCAA tournament expansion means for the women's tournament

The anticipated expansion of the NCAA Tournament is now official. Beginning with the 2027 tournament, 76 teams will participate in the tournament. As part of the announcement, the NCAA finally revealed how it will organize the women’s tournament.

In expanding the tournament by eight teams, the “First Four,” which consisted of eight teams playing four games over two days, now expands to an “Opening Round.” Twenty-four teams will play 12 games over two days.

The men’s First Four has been played in Dayton, Ohio, since its introduction in 2011. In 2022, the First Four was added to the women’s tournament. Those games were played at the host arena of four of the top 16 seeds. 

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The men’s tournament will add a second neutral site host city in addition to Dayton. Each site will now host three games on Tuesday and Wednesday before the first round of the tournament begins on Thursday.

The women’s tournament will continue to play opening round games at first round sites. Twelve of the Top 16 seeds will now also host an opening round game. Those games will be played on Wednesday and Thursday before the first round begins on Friday.

The 24 teams in the opening round will be the 12 lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and 12 lowest-seeded at-large teams. In effect, all four 16 seeds and two of the 15 seeds will come from a play-in game. The lowest at-large seeds, usually 11s and 12s, will also have to win a play-in game first.

The selection committee will seed the bracket to avoid teams from the same conference playing each other in the opening round or first round.

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Tournament expansion has been wildly unpopular with fans, but it was pushed through because it means more money for basketball programs. The NCAA claims that increased media rights payments will cover the cost of the extra games. Opening round games still pay out units. 

Units are paid out to teams for each NCAA tournament game in which they appear. Because a team that wins its opening round game earns two units, 16 additional units will be paid out beginning next year. 

The NCAA was slated to pay out a total of $20 million in units for the women’s tournament in 2026-27. It was not immediately clear if that total will be increased to cover the additional payouts or if the units will be worth less.

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