With NIL and the transfer portal, college basketball has more parity. There are rumors that the March Madness tournaments will be expanded to 90 teams.
With the smaller schools winning games in recent years, expanding the field would be good to get additional smaller programs involved. Expanding the bracket to allow more Power 6 (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Pac 12, and SEC) schools involved is not necessary. So, some limit needs to be placed on participation in the tournaments by Power 6 schools.
Expansion to 96 teams would only require one more round of games that could be played over one weekend.
A field of 96 could have 32 conference winners, no more than 32 Power 6 at-large teams, and the remainder of at-large schools from non-Power 6 conferences.
All conference champions would receive a first-round bye. That would leave 32 games to decide the remaining 32 teams to comprise the 64 schools in the second round.
Seeding should reward conference champions. The selection committee would rank all selected schools from 1 to 96. Then break the ranking into 16 groups of 6. Group 1 would be rated schools 1 to 6, Group 2 schools 7 to 12, and so on, Group 16 being ranked schools 91 to 96.
Conference champions in each group would be seeded based on their group number. Since there are six schools in each group and only four positions for a specific seed, there would be some flexibility to move up or down to an adjacent seed level.
That would leave 32 open positions in the bracket’s second round. The at-large schools would be ranked from 1 to 64. Then break the ranking into eight groups of 8. Group A would be rated schools 1 to 8, Group B schools 9 to 16, and so on, Group H being ranked schools 57 to 64,
First-round matchups would be within each group, for example, Group A, 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6, and 4 vs. 5. The open positions in the bracket would determine overall seeding. So, if there is an open position for a number 1 seed, the winner of Group A 1 vs. 8 would be given a number 1 seed. Working the groups from A to H, the first round bracket and how they play into the second round would be filled.
First-round games would be played on the campus of the better-ranked team on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday after the field is set. The second round would be held at regional locations starting the following Thursday.
The committee should attempt to place schools geographically and reduce conference teams from playing each other until the round of 16. Conference champions would receive a favorable geographic placement.
This approach would favor conference champions. Group A comprises many highly ranked schools, making an interesting first round. Those schools would have a week to prepare for a highly contested match.
You can see my post on equal distributions for the Male and Female tournaments.