Common-season convention champions who do not make the NCAA Match will now not obtain an automated bid to the NIT beneath new choice standards introduced Friday by the NCAA. As an alternative, the highest two groups within the NET rankings from every of the foremost six conferences (ACC, Huge 12, Huge East, Huge Ten, Pac-12, SEC) that didn’t qualify for the NCAA Match will earn the primary 12 NIT automated bids and have the proper to host first-round video games.Â
The transfer places the squeeze on low- and mid-major applications who win their convention’s common season title however fail to win their convention event and thus miss out on an automated NCAA Match bid. Beneath the earlier format, such faculties had been nonetheless assured a nationwide showcase alternative by the NIT.
“I used to be shocked and upset within the motion introduced immediately by the NIT Board of Managers, roughly one week previous to the beginning of the 2023-24 season,” stated MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher. “To make such a substantive change to the NIT construction with out offering a passable clarification or constructing the muse for such a change is troubling and leaves student-athletes, coaches, and followers in a state of uncertainty. As we speak’s announcement is main me to focus much more on the dialogue across the potential growth of the NCAA Match and I’ll marshal our membership’s consideration to that subject.”
In its announcement of changes to the NIT for 2024, the NCAA stated that it’s going to “choose the 20 greatest groups obtainable to finish the event’s 32-team area” after the 12 automated bids are handed out to energy convention faculties. The opposite 4 internet hosting faculties would be the “greatest” of the 20 at-large groups.
“The postseason school basketball panorama is turning into extra aggressive for groups that do not qualify for March Insanity,” stated Dan Gavitt, NIT board chair and NCAA senior vp of basketball. “The change to the choice course of for the 2024 NIT is a essential effort to evolve this historic event in a dynamic occasion market.”
Utilizing the 2024 standards, listed here are the groups that may have earned the 12 automated bids for final season’s NIT:
- ACC: Clemson, Virginia Tech (North Carolina declined an invite)Â
- Huge 12: Oklahoma State, Texas TechÂ
- Huge East: Villanova, Seton CorridorÂ
- Huge Ten: Rutgers, Ohio StateÂ
- Pac-12: Oregon, ColoradoÂ
- SEC: Florida, Vanderbilt
Of that group, Texas Tech was 16-16 (5-13 Huge 12) and Ohio State was 16-19 (5-15 Huge Ten).
That is solely the newest change to the NIT, which has traditionally performed its semifinals and ultimate at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York. These video games can be performed at Hinkle Fieldhouse on the Butler campus in Indianapolis on April 2 and 4 this season after final yr’s semifinals and finals had been held in Las Vegas.
