NCAA Tournaments get supersized makeovers that could affect Cinderella and your brackets

The NCAA Tournament is getting a supersized makeover , a long-expected expansion that many basketball fans should notice and pay attention to beginning next season. The sanctioning body increased the fields for its men’s and women’s March Madness tournaments to 76 teams apiece on Thursday. That means there will be eight more games — 12 total involving 24 teams — squeezed into the highly popular bracket without substantially changing the overall format.

Here is what happened NCAA coaches and administers have lobbied for more access to the lucrative, postseason showcase for years. The biggest questions always revolved around how many teams would get in and what would the new setup look like. The first expansion of the tournaments in 15 years, since adding increasing the field from 64 to 68 teams, will turn what has been known as the First Four into a bigger affair that will now be called the March Madness Opening Round.

The 12 winners will move into the main 64-team bracket that will begin, as usual, on Thursday for the men and Friday for the women. Here is why it happened Money seems like the primary reason, though some will argue it's about providing more spots for deserving teams. The change comes at a time when conferences and universities are desperately looking for ways to add revenue.

Some schools are strapped for cash while having to share revenue with top athletes and are trying to better position themselves for the next iteration of the ever-changing landscape of college sports. With schools now allowed to spend more than $20 million on their athletes, the race to stay competitive is frenetic. The NCAA said it will distribute more than $131 million in new revenue to schools that make the tournament.