This will be a very different NIT. The National Invitational Tournament has routinely been used as a place where mid-major or lesser-known teams are given a chance to play against the nation’s best teams that narrowly missed out on the NCAA Tournament grand dance. , now that’s not the case.
To raise the profile of the NIT, organizers eliminated the long-standing entry method of winning a conference regular-season title. Right now, the focus (as in all college sports) is on getting as many power conference participants as possible, regardless of how it affects the competition, and those who missed the tournament. Automatic bidding is now available to schools in major conferences.
In other words, this means that instead of seeing a very talented team that narrowly misses out on a spot, the fourth or fifth best team in the larger conference takes over in preference. This has led to some teams already announcing they are not interested in playing in the NIT, such as Ole Miss, which rejected a big tournament similar to North Carolina in 2023.
A year ago, North Texas cut the net in a win over UAB, so let’s take a look at this year’s field.
upper left bracket
1 Seton Hall
St. Joseph
4 LSUs
north texas
3 Providence
boston college
2 Princeton
UNLV
lower left bracket
1 Wake Forest
Appalachia
4 Georgia
Xavier
3 Virginia Tech
richmond
2 Ohio State University
cornell
upper right bracket
1 Indiana
SMU
4 Butler
minnesota
3 bradley
loyola chicago
2 Cincinnati
San Francisco
lower right bracket
1 Villanova
VCU
4 UCF
south florida
3 iowa
Kansas
2 Utah
University of California, Irvine
