The NCAA has initiated the final steps to expand the men's and women's basketball tournaments to 76 teams, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.
The expansion, which has been discussed for well over a year, is on track to be formalized in the upcoming weeks and would begin this coming season. Sources indicated mid-May as a potential timeline for an announcement.
Though there are still steps to take in terms of approvals via various NCAA committees, a source indicated "those are just formalities."
"They have what they need to move forward," a source said.
NCAA officials met with media partners for the men's tournament last week, sources told ESPN. The sides were in the final steps of the media contracts, per sources, but they had not been signed.
Once the contracts are completed, the NCAA also would need approval from various committees that include the men's and women's basketball committees, the men's and women's basketball oversight committees, the Division I cabinet and the Division I board of governors.
For the various NCAA committees to vote, the contracts would need to be signed for their approval.
The expansion wasn't expected to be a financial windfall for the NCAA and its members, but sources stressed there would be a profit.
The added finances would cover the additional logistics cost for both the men's and women's tournaments, the additional NCAA tournament units that would come into play and still deliver "a modest financial upside."
The primary driver of this move hasn't been money, but rather access for at-large bids for power conferences. The expansion has been pushed by power conferences, which have grown throughout the course of the current deal.
The mechanics of the expansion in the men's tournament would include eight additional at-large bids. What's known now as the First Four -- eight teams playing four games in Dayton, Ohio -- would expand to 12 games played by 24 teams at two sites, one of which was expected to remain in Dayton.
The location of the new site has yet to be determined, but it was expected to be west of the Eastern time zone to help with logistics.
The expansion would lead to an additional eight men's games, meaning the Tuesday and Wednesday of the NCAA tournament would feature 24 of the 76 men's teams. That number now includes eight teams who would have qualified for the traditional bracket that would square off against the eight at-large additions.
The traditional 64-team men's team bracket would still begin Thursday and look much the same. The major difference would be more teams that qualify as traditional at-larges would have to play earlier than the 64-team bracket.