The NIT - What's this all about? Teams not qualifying for the NCAA tournament
have the opportunity to be invited to one of three
other postseason tournaments:
The NIT features
a 32-team field chosen right after the NCAA chooses the 68 teams
in its tournament. It awards automatic bids to the top two
teams (based on NET ranking) in each of the power conferences
which do not make the NCAA tournament. Also, the first 4 teams out
of the NCAA tournament become automatic 1 seeds in the NIT. All
games are held on campus sites except for the Final Four and
Championship which is held at a neutral site (2023: Las Vegas,
2024: Indianapolis).
The CBI features up to 16 teams with all games held at one site
(in 2024: Daytona Beach, FL). The CIT also features up to 16 teams
with all games held at campus sites.
Schools have been known to decline an invitation to any of these
tournaments due to the lack of interest in playing in a tournament
other than the NCAAs, the desire to focus on recruiting for next
season or the pay-to-play nature of these tournaments.
In 2025, FOX Sports and AEG will present a new 16-team postseason
tournament called the College
Basketball Crown from Las Vegas. It will automatically
invite two schools from each of its major conference partners (Big
Ten, Big East, Big 12).
To get a feel for what kind of teams are involved, these were the
2024 participants along with their record and NET ranking.