Sample Page

The 2026–27 NCAA Division I men’s basketball season will begin on November 1, 2026 and will end on March 14, 2027. It will begin with the March Madness Opening Round on March 16, 2027 and end with the championship game at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan on April 5.^[1]

On May 8, 2026 the following rules were modified:^[2]

• 10-second backcourt violations will be called when the shot clock reaches 19 seconds, rather than 20.
• The game clock must run before a second timeout is granted when two media timeouts would otherwise occur consecutively.

The 31 regular season game limit is increased to 32 this season.^[3] The previous limit was for 28 or 29 regular season games plus a tournament or multiple-team event (MTE) allowance. The updated legislation removes these MTE requirements, allowing schools to schedule the full 32 games in various combinations.

In addition, the 60-day window for a player to enter the transfer portal has been shortened to 15-days starting from the tournament title game. Another 15-day transfer window is allowed when a head coach change is announced. Any players transferring schools outside these windows will be required to sit out for one year pending a waiver.^[4]

• April 8, 2026 – Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reported that NCAA Division I was considering a new athletic eligibility framework. Under the proposal, D-I athletes would have five full years of eligibility, starting on their 19th birthday or high school graduation, whichever is sooner. No redshirting would be allowed, even for medical reasons. Existing eligibility waivers for military service, religious missions, or (for women) maternity leave, would not be affected.^[5]
• April 10 — UC Santa Barbara announced it would return to the West Coast Conference (WCC) for the 2027–28 season after having been absent for nearly 60 years. UCSB had been a WCC member from 1964–1969, but left to join the Pacific Coast Athletic Association, now known as the Big West Conference, and had been in the PCAA/Big West ever since, except for a stint as a Division I independent from 1974–1976.^[6]
• April 17 – Notre Dame and Villanova announced that their men’s and women’s teams would open the 2026–27 season with a November 1 doubleheader in Rome. The schools noted that the event was inspired by Pope Leo XIV‘s background as an Augustinian friar and Villanova alumnus.^[7]
• May 7 – The NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament will expand to 76 teams starting with the 2026–27 season. This change would also be applied to the women’s tournament as well.^[8]
• May 27 – The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference announced that it would rename itself as the Metro Conference effective July 1.^[9]
• June 5 – The NCAA Division I Cabinet slightly modified the age-based eligibility proposal, addressing concerns raised by the men’s basketball and men’s ice hockey communities, as well as the service academies. Under the new proposal, expected to be voted on by the end of June, athletes’ eligibility clocks would start upon their full-time college enrollment or the start of the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever is sooner.^[10]
• June 23 – The Division I Cabinet unanimously approved the age-based eligibility proposal as modified earlier that month, officially taking effect with the end of the Cabinet’s meeting the next day. Students enrolling full-time in college for the first time in 2026, plus those who had remaining eligibility under previous rules at the end of 2025–26, can use whichever model is most advantageous to them. Those who exhausted their eligibility under previous rules in 2025–26 will not receive any additional eligibility, even if they initially enrolled in 2022–23 (giving them four years of eligibility).^[11]
• June 24 – On the same day the new age-based eligibility model took effect, a group of 15 college basketball players, all of whom graduated from high school in 2022 and exhausted their eligibility under the previous rules in 2025–26, filed suit in Hamilton County, Ohio challenging the application of the new model to their high school cohort. Other suits on similar grounds were expected to be filed in other states.^[12]
• June 26 – The Coastal Athletic Association announced that Fairfield would join from the Metro Conference in July 2027.^[13]

A total of 29 schools are set to start play in new conferences for the 2026–27 season. The Pac-12 Conference will resume full operation after a two-season hiatus, with legacy members Oregon State and Washington State joined by seven new members. Another 18 schools are moving within Division I, one is starting reclassification from NCAA Division II, and one is starting reclassification to NCAA Division III. This does not include the three legacy Western Athletic Conference members (Abilene Christian, Tarleton State, UT Arlington) that remained members through that conference’s renaming as the United Athletic Conference.

The 2026–27 season is the last in their respective conferences for at least three Division I schools.

The Top 25 from the AP and USA Today Coaching Polls

The NCAA Tournament will tip off on March 16, 2027, with the Opening Round in Dayton, Ohio and Wichita, Kansas, and will conclude on April 5 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. A total of 76 teams will enter the tournament. 32 of those teams will earn automatic bids by winning their respective conferences tournaments. The remaining 44 teams will be granted “at-large” bids which were extended by the NCAA Selection Committee.

Final Four – Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan

See also: Ford Field and Detroit

	Semifinals					Finals
	1
	4
	3
	2

Many teams will change coaches during the season and after it ends

The Top 30 NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams by average home attendance.

• 2026–27 NCAA Division I women’s basketball season