Scheduling Change Coming to College Basketball Regular Season

While the possibility of expanding the college basketball NCAA Tournament lingers, news surrounding the regular season came first.

Matt Norlander of CBS Sports reported that college basketball’s regular season is expanding from 31 to 32 games, the NCAA Division I Council approved on Wednesday.

NEWS: The NCAA D1 Council is expected to approve expanding the college basketball season from 31 to 32 games per @MattNorlander 👀 pic.twitter.com/5cFYgbHNiO

— The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) June 25, 2025

The change will take place starting for the 2026-27 season. Teams are not required to play the extra game, but many are expected to do so to bolster resumes for March Madness.

It’s the first modification to the regular-season schedule in 19 years when the 31-game maximum came into existence during the 2006-07 season.

Per Norlander’s report, “The primary issue driving the decision to go to 32 is tied to multi-team events (MTEs), which had become more restrictive with some of their NCAA guidelines due to conference expansion leading to schools from the same leagues playing in the same events. That was previously not allowed (but now is via a waiver). Additionally, sometimes three-game MTEs were roadblocks for a variety of schools trying to work through the logistics of nonconference scheduling.”

The regular-season expansion comes during a flurry of scheduling changes in college basketball. A decision on whether the NCAA Tournament grows from 68 teams to 76 teams is expected to be made in the coming weeks.

In May, athletic directors in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) approved the reduction of conference games from 20 to 18. The move came in order to allow for teams to schedule more conference games to help with postseason implications.

Pitt will now have the opportunity to play 14 nonconference games starting in 26-27.

All of the scheduling changes come as teams are looking for different ways to bring in revenue for the new era of revenue sharing from college athletic departments to student athletes.