

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 regular season conference champions who do not otherwise go to the NCAA tournament. Also, the first 4 teams out of the NCAA tournament become automatic 1 seeds in the NIT.



The CBI features 16 teams and the CIT has up to 32 teams exclusively from mid-major leagues or lower (only 26 teams participated in 2019). The CIT does not place teams in a bracket, opting to place teams in matchups after the previous round has concluded.



Schools have been known to decline an invitation to the CBI/CIT tournaments due to the lack of interest in playing in a third-tier tournament (e.g., "We're Indiana. We don't play in the CBI.") or the pay-to-play nature of these tournaments.





To get a feel for what kind of teams are involved, these were the 2019 participants along with their record and NET ranking.







The 2019 NIT, CBI and CIT Teams



NIT CBI

CIT

33

North Carolina State

ACC

22-11

90

Utah Valley

WAC

24-9

72

East Tennessee State

Southern

24-9

35

Clemson

ACC

19-13

91

Southern Miss

CUSA

20-12

127

Drake

MVC

24-9

38

Texas

Big 12

16-16

96

Grand Canyon

WAC

20-13

134

Texas State

Sun Belt

24-9

41

Furman

Southern

25-7

99

South Florida

American

19-13

138

Kent State

MAC

22-10

46

Memphis

American

21-13

102

DePaul

Big East

15-15

148

Marshall

CUSA

19-14

48

Nebraska

Big Ten

18-16

106

West Virginia

Big 12

14-20

150

Florida Atlantic

CUSA

17-15

49

Lipscomb

Atlantic Sun

25-7

113

Central Michigan

MAC

23-11

151

Louisiana-Monroe

Sun Belt

18-15

52

TCU

Big 12

20-13

133

UAB

CUSA

20-14

168

UTRGV

WAC

19-16

53

Creighton

Big East

18-14

142

Loyola Marymount

WCC

20-11

172

NJIT

Atlantic Sun

21-12

54

Indiana

Big Ten

17-15

145

Brown

Ivy

19-11

186

Seattle

WAC

18-14

59

Alabama

SEC

18-15

156

Stony Brook

America East

24-8

187

FIU

CUSA

19-13

60

UNC Greensboro

Southern

28-6

163

Coastal Carolina

Sun Belt

15-16

195

Cornell

Ivy

15-15

62

Toledo

MAC

25-7

165

California Baptist

WAC

16-14

197

Charleston Southern

Big South

17-15

64

Butler

Big East

16-16

273

Cal State Northridge

Big West

13-20

200

CSU Fullerton

Big West

16-17

65

Arkansas

SEC

17-15

291

Longwood

Big South

15-17

204

Presbyterian

Big South

18-15

66

Colorado

Pac-12

21-12

306

Howard

MEAC

17-16

207

IUPUI

Horizon

16-16

67

Xavier

Big East

18-15









209

Hampton

Big South

15-16

69

Dayton

Atlantic 10

21-11









218

CSU Bakersfield

WAC

16-15

70

Providence

Big East

18-15









221

Wisconsin-Green Bay

Horizon

17-16

75

Davidson

Atlantic 10

24-9









230

Texas Southern

SWAC

21-13

76

Hofstra

Colonial

27-7









244

Quinnipiac

MAAC

16-14

82

Georgetown

Big East

19-13









254

St. Francis (NY)

Northeast

17-15

83

Wichita State

American

19-14









261

Southern Utah

Big Sky

16-16

97

San Diego

WCC

21-14









266

New Orleans

Southland

19-13

104

South Dakota State

Summit

24-8









267

Robert Morris

NEC

17-16

128

Loyola-Chicago

MVC

20-13









293

Grambling

SWAC

17-16

129

Harvard

Ivy

18-11

















140

Wright State

Horizon

21-13

















174

Sam Houston State

Southland

21-11

















223

Campbell

Big South

20-12

















260

Norfolk State

MEAC

21-13

















265

St. Francis (PA)

NEC

18-14





















Automatic bids listed in bold .







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