March Madness is in full swing with the 2024 NCAA Tournament tipping off this week. Underneath as always is the 2024 National Invitational Team, a 32-team bracket of schools that couldn’t quite make the cut for the Big Dance.
But there’s a major difference between this year’s NIT and NIT’s of the past; this year’s tourney could be a harbinger of where Division I postseason tournaments are heading, and it isn’t good if you’re a fan of a mid-major program.
The NIT drastically altered its selection procedures for the 32-team field this year. Previously all conference regular season champions that didn’t make the NCAA Tournament were guaranteed automatic bids. So if you win your regular season, but get upset in your conference tournament, you could still play basketball late into March. It was a great system everyone liked, because it rewarded being consistently good in college basketball.
With the new changes however, automatic bids are now guaranteed for two teams from each power conference with the highest NET rating. As a refresher, the ACC, Big 12, Big East Big Ten, Pac-12, and SEC constitute the six power conferences in college basketball. If one of those teams were to decline their bid, the committee then gives it to the next team down the line in the conference NET rankings.
And those 12 teams are guaranteed hosting duties in the first round regardless of record. The NIT selection committee then fills out the rest of the field with at-larges.
This decision was met with swift criticism for how the tournament was giving preferential treatment to lesser teams from power leagues, opening the possibility of several deserving mid-majors to be left out of the field. Many speculated that the NIT did this in reaction to reports that Fox was in talks of creating its own postseason tournament that would feature several power conference teams left out of the NCAA’s.
But Sunday marked the committee’s first application of these new procedures, and we’ll take a look at how it turned out below.
Top Left Bracket
No. 1 Seton Hall (Big East) vs. Saint Joseph’s (A-10)
No. 4 LSU (SEC) vs. North Texas (AAC)
No. 3 Providence (Big East) vs. Boston College (ACC)
No. 2 Princeton (Ivy) vs. UNLV (Mountain West)
Bottom Left Bracket
No. 1 Wake Forest (ACC) vs. Appalachian State (Sun Belt)
No. 4 Georgia (SEC) vs. Xavier (Big East)
No. 3 Virginia Tech (ACC) vs. Richmond (A-10)
No. 2 Ohio State (Big Ten) vs. Cornell (Ivy)
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Top Right Bracket
No. 1 Indiana State (MVC) vs. SMU (AAC)
No. 4 Butler (Big East) vs. Minnesota (Big Ten)
No. 3 Bradley (MVC) vs. Loyola Chicago (A-10)
No. 2 Cincinnati (Big 12) vs. San Francisco (WCC)
Bottom Right Bracket
No. 1 Villanova (Big East) vs. VCU (A-10)
No. 4 UCF (Big 12) vs. USF (AAC)
No. 3 Iowa (Big Ten) vs. Kansas State (Big 12)
No. 2 Utah (Pac-12) vs. UC Irvine (Big West)
13 of the 16 ranked teams hosting first-round games are power conference schools, and some of them directly benefitted from a higher-ranked team in their league declining an invite. Those teams included Virginia Tech, UCF, Providence, and Georgia, who were given first round home games simply due to an opt-out up their conference standings ladder.
Oddly enough, the Pac-12 will have just one representative in the tournament, as their second guaranteed spot wasn’t backfilled after Washington declined their invite. So congratulations to Indiana State for getting a break by being given hosting duties… even though you should’ve been in the NCAA Tournament in the first place.
As mentioned before, the new system opened the door for several deserving mid-majors be left out of the tournament, and nine regular season conference champions were snubbed from the bracket. Those teams included the ASUN’s Eastern Kentucky, the Big Sky’s Eastern Washington, the Big South’s High Point, Conference USA’s Sam Houston State, the MAC’s Toledo, the MAAC’s Quinnipiac, and the MEAC’s Norfolk State, as well as NEC co-champs Central Connecticut State and Merrimack. All of these teams would’ve been guaranteed entry in the previous system, but they’ve now been left out in the cold.
On top of that, there’s a straight up question of worthiness for some of these teams to host. Villanova gets rewarded for playing a Big East schedule, even though it struggled for extended periods of time and went through a stretch where it lost seven of nine games. Last year’s mediocre Wildcats team at least had to travel down to Richmond for its first NIT game. This year, they get the benefit of hosting a VCU squad that actually made the A-10 Tournament final.
USF was one of the biggest surprises in the entire sport, winning the American Conference regular season title and rattling off 15 straight victories at one point. The Bulls were ultimately left out of the NCAA Tournament due to a weak non-conference schedule, but did get an at-large bid to the NIT.
Their reward? Being sent on the road to play rival UCF, a 17-15 squad who finished with a below .500 conference record in their first year in the Big 12.
Heck, Georgia has only won THREE GAMES since January 27, and still the Bulldogs will to host a game because Ole Miss decided to skip to the tournament.
Now, some of you may be thinking “who cares dude, it’s just the NIT.” But keep this in mind as power conference commissioners like the SEC’s Greg Sankey talks about NCAA Tournament expansion and giving more “access” to their schools. Or when the Big Ten and SEC pushes for more guaranteed spots in the expanded College Football Playoff.
We’re barreling towards a world where mid-major upstarts will be even more marginalized in March, and you can look at the NIT’s new selection procedures as the canary in the coal mine.