2027 NCAA Tournament Bracketology: Duke No. 1 in preseason projections, expansion puts squeeze on mid-majors — SkimNews
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- NCAA grows the tournament from 68 to 76 teams for 2026-27, its biggest change in more than 40 years, tipping off Sunday night with Notre Dame vs. Villanova in Rome.
- Opening Round replaces the First Four with 12 games, six apiece in Dayton, Ohio and Wichita, Kansas on the Tuesday and Wednesday after Selection Sunday; only 52 of the 64 first-round teams will begin their run in the first round, with 12 arriving off Opening Round wins.
- Duke takes the No. 1 overall seed in CBS Sports preseason Bracketology, returning four rotation players from a 35-3 team and adding the nation's No. 2 freshman class and No. 11 transfer haul; the Blue Devils crushed Tennessee 103-64 and edged Kansas 90-84 on the road.
- Florida sits at No. 1 in the AP preseason poll but must battle through a stacked SEC almost every night — the contrast CBS Sports uses to put Duke, with an easier ACC path, atop its bracket.
- Pac-12 returns as the 32nd Division I conference, pushing automatic bids back to 32; history says at least seven leagues will produce multiple bids, and eight would leave 24 one-bid leagues in the field.
- CBS Sports' projected field leaves just 26 automatic qualifiers for the Thursday/Friday first round, down from 29 last season, with 38 at-large teams still afloat; last year only four single-bid teams — all No. 16 seeds — reached the First Four.
- LSU is in the 'Last Four In' alongside Colorado State, West Virginia and Baylor, while Xavier, Ole Miss, San Diego State and Creighton are the 'First Four Out.'
Why it matters: If eight conferences again produce multiple bids, 12 of 24 single-bid league representatives will be stuck in the Opening Round, leaving just 26 automatic qualifiers for the Thursday/Friday first round versus 29 last season, with 38 at-large teams — mostly from high-major conferences — taking the rest. Mid-major wins now come Tuesday and Wednesday against other mid-majors.
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