RIP NIT?

[#UnleashSean]

The NIT has only "lost some of its luster in recent years"?

It's been an utterly inconsequential event for decades.

If the NIT indeed is doomed, few if any tears would be shed. Hell, few would even notice.

I've been alive for 30 years and can count on two fingers the amount of years I've paid any attention to the NIT.

[#UnleashSean]

Good point. Tying NIL will only make the players more interested in playing in this tournament. Currently, teams cannot refuse an NCAA bid thanks to Al McGuire, but might we see that challenged?

Isn't it, can't play any other tournaments if they refuse, verse not being able to refuse at all?

[Uncle Rico]

I've been alive for 30 years and can count on two fingers the amount of years I've paid any attention to the NIT.

The NIT has a strong history with Catholic basketball schools.  There is a nostalgia factor at play with some because it did mean something at once. 

As you’ve stated, its recent history is irrelevant but for the older crowd, it used to mean something.  It hasn’t for half a century plus.  At best, it was a decent consolation prize and chance to play a few extra games

[muwarrior69]

Here is the article.

https://www.nj.com/setonhall/2023/09/new-fox-sponsored-postseason-basketball-tournament-would-involve-big-east-big-ten-big-12.html

Seems to have an NIL component to it as well

Here is the original article.

https://themessenger.com/sports/fox-sports-mens-college-basketball-proposed-tournament-las-vegas?utm_source=onsite&utm_medium=latest_news

[MU82]

I'd miss the NIT at least as much as I miss Jarts, smoking sections on airplanes, Quisp & Quake, and black vinyl sofas.

[tower912]

My opinion of the NIT is forever influenced by MU finishing the game with 4 players on the floor in Bloomington.

[Coleman]

All the more reason to think this is aimed to destabilize the NCAAs and not the NIT. It's sliding into the biggest gap in the NCAA calendar (once the NCAAs start) where there are 5 straight days with no games. It tries to catch the college basketball popularity that already exists with large brands while everyone is waiting for the Final Four to tip off.

No idea if it will work, and it seems like most non-NCAA postseason tournaments are doomed to being an afterthought (NIT, Vegas 32 16 8, CBI, CIT, etc) but if your headliners are national brands (Michigan, Villanova, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Wisconsin all would've been in this last year) and you are timing it to go up against tournaments with CUSA teams at best, you are putting forward teams that people could viably think "they might've made the Final 4" in the days leading up to that event.

Or it is just the best time slot for the most TV revenue?

I think you're overthinking it. There' no way a tournament made up of a bunch of mediocre .500-ish teams from the Big East, Big Ten and Big 12 are going to seriously compete with March Madness.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Or it is just the best time slot for the most TV revenue?

I think you're overthinking it. There' no way a tournament made up of a bunch of mediocre .500-ish teams from the Big East, Big Ten and Big 12 are going to seriously compete with March Madness.

Yep. It's a Roller Derby event made for TV.

As suggested, the NIT will get combined with NCAAT with an expanded field. Much more media hype for the NCAAT.

[Coleman]

Here's a harebrained idea, I'm not even sure I like it...but I'm curious to hear others opinions....

Revert the "official" NCAA tournament to 64 teams. 60 are chosen on selection Sunday. This includes all 32 conference tournament winners and 28 at-large selections.

But then hold a 32 team play-in tournament that is branded as the "NIT" the week before the NCAA - until you get to an NIT final four. This "NIT" would be 3 rounds (round of 32, round of 16, round of 8). It would be all at-large teams that are not chosen on Selection Sunday. You could also include Conference Regular Season Champions that were not chosen on Selection Sunday (like the NIT currently does).

The final 8 teams now are the play-in games for the final 4 spots in the NCAA. But they have to win 3 games to make the tournament. You then seed all the teams after the NIT NCAA qualifiers are decided.

You've essentially added the ability for up to 96 teams to win the National Championship by adding one more way to qualify, but you have not watered down the accomplishment of making the tournament. Only 64 teams make it. 32 NIT qualifiers have the ability to compete for 4 NCAA spots. Each NIT region winner would qualify for the Big Dance. There is no longer an "NIT Champion," but oh well, this has largely become an irrelevant title. You can have 4 NIT Regional Champions.

The NIT becomes part of (or at the very least, a prelude to) March Madness instead of some weird irrelevant side show. The teams playing in it are playing for something...a ticket to the Big Dance. It is an actually relevant third piece of the March fun (the others being the conference tournaments and the NCAA tournament).

The scheduling would be difficult to make work, you'd obviously have to push back the National Championship a week. But you'd have to do this by expanding the tournament anyway. You also do not punish the best teams by adding more games to win the National Championship.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

They want the best teams to play more games. That’s what drives the television ratings. 

[brewcity77]

Here's a harebrained idea, I'm not even sure I like it...but I'm curious to hear others opinions....

Revert the "official" NCAA tournament to 64 teams. 60 are chosen on selection Sunday. This includes all 32 conference tournament winners and 28 at-large selections.

But then hold a 32 team play-in tournament that is branded as the "NIT" the week before the NCAA - until you get to an NIT final four. This "NIT" would be 3 rounds (round of 32, round of 16, round of 8). It would be all at-large teams that are not chosen on Selection Sunday. You could also include Conference Regular Season Champions that were not chosen on Selection Sunday (like the NIT currently does).

The final 8 teams now are the play-in games for the final 4 spots in the NCAA. But they have to win 3 games to make the tournament. You then seed all the teams after the NIT NCAA qualifiers are decided.

You've essentially added the ability for up to 96 teams to win the National Championship by adding one more way to qualify, but you have not watered down the accomplishment of making the tournament. Only 64 teams make it. 32 NIT qualifiers have the ability to compete for 4 NCAA spots. Each NIT region winner would qualify for the Big Dance. There is no longer an "NIT Champion," but oh well, this has largely become an irrelevant title. You can have 4 NIT Regional Champions.

The NIT becomes part of (or at the very least, a prelude to) March Madness instead of some weird irrelevant side show. The teams playing in it are playing for something...a ticket to the Big Dance. It is an actually relevant third piece of the March fun (the others being the conference tournaments and the NCAA tournament).

The scheduling would be difficult to make work, you'd obviously have to push back the National Championship a week. But you'd have to do this by expanding the tournament anyway. You also do not punish the best teams by adding more games to win the National Championship.

I think expansion is just going to expand. Honestly, if the NCAA Tournament wants to survive, they probably need to. Adding 12-28 bids would kill the Fox plan in the cradle as they would take at least 4-5 teams from that BE/B12/B10 pool every year.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

I think expansion is just going to expand. Honestly, if the NCAA Tournament wants to survive, they probably need to. Adding 12-28 bids would kill the Fox plan in the cradle as they would take at least 4-5 teams from that BE/B12/B10 pool every year.

Exactly

[Not A Serious Person]

I think expansion is just going to expand. Honestly, if the NCAA Tournament wants to survive, they probably need to. Adding 12-28 bids would kill the Fox plan in the cradle as they would take at least 4-5 teams from that BE/B12/B10 pool every year.

Why stop at 12 to 28?  You can have all 300+ D1 teams.  Added another week and give first-round byes to the top 64, second-round byes to the top 32, and maybe even third-round to the top 8 or 16.  The first two rounds can be played on campus, and they would feed into the final 64.

Or, if you want to use the tennis terminology, call the first two rounds on campus the "qualifiers."

[Tyler COLEk]

Perhaps this is an indication that the Big East is close to finalizing a new overall TV deal with Fox?

[brewcity77]

Why stop at 12 to 28?

Because the NCAA guideline is 25% of  teams in a sport included in the postseason, which the current crappy 68-team format comes up short of. 80 would get closer and if done right make for a better tournament. 96 is the more commonly mentioned number, though,

[withoutbias]

Man I can’t imagine walking around thinking everything sucks. The NCAA Tournament format is the best tournament in all of sports.

I have my doubts that the way Fox is trying to get a P6 breakaway tournament is by having DePaul play Washington State leading up to a Duke vs. Kansas Final Four game. If that’s their strategy, well that strategy does indeed suck.

[Hards Alumni]

The more I think about this, the less I think it's a threat to the NIT and the more I think it's a threat to the NCAA Tournament. This is the beginning of power leagues creating a breakaway tournament with only their members. Maybe it starts as the 16 bottom teams in these leagues, but this is how you get to a tournament that only allows the big boys and eventually could be expanded to include the top-64 teams in the top-5 leagues, maybe with a few invitations to whom they see fit.

More than half the NIT was composed of non-P5 last year. It will continue on with the middling attention it currently gets. The real danger is where this could go in 5-10 years if it starts to garner interest.

I came to say this and realized I didn't have to type it.  Thanks!

[brewcity77]

Man I can’t imagine walking around thinking everything sucks. The NCAA Tournament format is the best tournament in all of sports.

I don't think everything sucks. But 68 is not perfect. It's awkward. 64 was perfect. Since they expanded from there and there's no going back, the important thing is to make Tuesday/Wednesday matter rather than being relative afterthoughts for all but the diehard fans.

And the NCAA tournament format isn't the best Tournament in all of sports. That's the World Cup. But it is the one of the best annual tournaments, and by far the best in America.

[Herman Cain]

I don't think everything sucks. But 68 is not perfect. It's awkward. 64 was perfect. Since they expanded from there and there's no going back, the important thing is to make Tuesday/Wednesday matter rather than being relative afterthoughts for all but the diehard fans.

And the NCAA tournament format isn't the best Tournament in all of sports. That's the World Cup. But it is the one of the best annual tournaments, and by far the best in America.

I have never watched a single World Cup game.

[THRILLHO]

I have never watched a single World Cup game.

Oh, I guess maybe it isn't popular then.

[Its DJOver]

I don't think everything sucks. But 68 is not perfect. It's awkward. 64 was perfect. Since they expanded from there and there's no going back, the important thing is to make Tuesday/Wednesday matter rather than being relative afterthoughts for all but the diehard fans.

And the NCAA tournament format isn't the best Tournament in all of sports. That's the World Cup. But it is the one of the best annual tournaments, and by far the best in America.

WC format's been ruined by $$$ too.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

WC format's been ruined by $$$ too.

There's going to be forty more games and an extra knock out round. I think its great.

[Its DJOver]

There's going to be forty more games and an extra knock out round. I think its great.

In that sense yes, more games = more money.  Third place teams progressing diminishes the quality of the WC, as well as the quality of qualification.  The 32 team format was perfect.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

To me, more games and more rounds makes it better - more games to watch and more potential for upsets.

[Its DJOver]

Yes, but there's a law of diminishing returns.  Watching Qatar get embarrassed on the pitch last fall was not entertaining.  2026 has 8 AFC auto qualifiers with the potential for one more, so not only would Qatar be back, but you could see countries like Oman and the UAE there as well.  Watching Spain against the top OFC team (which is now guaranteed a spot in the tournament rather than just a play off), is the equivalent of Spain against Georgia, which we just saw end 7-1 in qualifying.  The 32 team format was perfect.