FILE - A basketball with a March Madness logo is seen going through a net prior to a second round of the NCAA college basketball tournament between Notre Dame and Michigan, March 23, 2025, in South Bend, Ind. (AP Photo/John Mersits, File)

The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will not expand beyond 68 teams in 2026, but future growth remains on the radar.

“Expanding the tournament fields is no longer being contemplated for the 2026 men’s and women’s basketball championships,” Dan Gavitt, NCAA senior vice president of basketball, said in a statement on Monday. “However, the committees will continue conversations on whether to recommend expanding to 72 or 76 teams in advance of the 2027 championships.”

NCAA President Charlie Baker has said adding teams could add value to the tournament, and he said the NCAA already has had “good conversations” with TV partners CBS and Warner Bros., whose deal runs through 2032 at the cost of around $1.1 billion a year.

The NCAA Tournament expanded from 64 to 68 teams in 2011. The change introduced the First Four round, a set of pre-tournament games in which the four lowest-seeded at-large teams and four lowest-seeded conference champions compete for spots in the traditional 64-team bracket.

Baker indicated in May that the current formula has flaws and said it would be beneficial to give more opportunities to worthy teams.

“If you have a tournament that’s got 64 or 68 teams in it, you’re going to have a bunch of teams that are probably among what most people would consider to be the best 68 or 70 teams in the country that aren’t going to make the tournament, period,” Baker said then. “The point behind going from 68 to 72 or 76 is to basically give some of those schools that were probably among the 72, 76, 68, 64 best teams in the country a way into the tournament.”

Spurs extend Fox

SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox has agreed to a four-year, $228 million maximum contract extension, a person with knowledge of the situation said Monday.

Fox is under contract this season for the final year of his five-year, $163 million deal. The extension starts in 2026-27, said the person, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the Spurs had not yet announced the deal. They did not provide specific terms when they did.

The move was expected after the Spurs made a big splash at the trade deadline last season by getting Fox from the Sacramento Kings. Fox has career averages of 21.5 points and 6.1 assists in eight NBA seasons. He averaged 19.7 points and 6.8 assists in 17 games with the Spurs last season. Fox missed the final 18 games due to surgery to repair the extensor tendon in his left fifth finger.