New NIT Format

[GIGAFAN99]

I can't believe I missed this. The regular season champs that get hosed by "Championship WeeK" automatically go?

Sweet! That's a great rule. And this puts the NCAA one step closer from folding the NIT into the NCAA tournament.

I'm personally in favor of automatic bids for the tournament champs (31), regular-season champs (31 max), and at-larges for the rest up to 80.

The bottom 32 have to play an extra game at the higher seed's home floor earlier in the week to get into the regular tournament where the other 48 await.

To avoid "dogging" by teams in the conference tournaments who already have a bid sewn up, winners of tournament titles automatically get a bye (in other words, they are in the top 48).

So there's incentive to win. And the best part is if you work your tail off and go undefeated in your conference (like Davidson last year), your fate for losing in the conference tourney is an NCAA game something like their NIT game versus Maryland last year. That was a good game, but it would have been way better if the teams knew the field of 64 was awaiting the winner.

[FrazierFanatic]

I like the idea, but it will never happen. The NCAA is more interested in 7-9 or even 6-10 teams from the big conferences, with some name recognition, than more teams from the small conferences.

[Just Cos]

The rule change may impact one team over the next couple of decades. Granted it is a good change, but seriously how many teams win their regular season championship and still finish below .500 overall. You have to have one tough OOC schedule to pull that off.

[Jack]

cosgravm said:

The rule change may impact one team over the next couple of decades. Granted it is a good change, but seriously how many teams win their regular season championship and still finish below .500 overall. You have to have one tough OOC schedule to pull that off.

Pretty sure the impact of the rule-change is to guarantee a spot in the NIT for mid/low-major regular season champs who do not win their conference tournament and otherwise would have been excluded from an NIT that often selects teams based on potential for ticket sales and TV ratings more than actual basketball performance.

E.g. Coppin St. wins the MEAC regular season title, finishes the year 12-4 in conference, 18-9 overall, but loses in the conference tourney and Hampton gets their auto NCAA bid. In many previous years, a team like Coppin St. would not be nearly as appealing to the NIT organizers as a team like Louisville, well below .500 in conference and just above .500 overall, and the MEAC school would get left out entirely. I don't really know how many teams this rule will impact, but it is plenty more than once a decade.

[Big Dog]

an 80 team tournament? horrible. you'd cut out the thrilling upsets that make the first two days worthwhile because the teams would be gassed from earlier in the week, and you'd add no team that's actually a national championship contender, which is the point in the first place.

I just wish they'd cut one auto bid and make it 64 rather than this bizarre 65.

What happens if we have to split the Big East in two?

[GIGAFAN99]

Why would you cut the upsets?

The auto-bids wouldn't have to play until the round of 64 just like now. So the Central Michigans and Santa Claras and Cleveland States of the world would be playing on exactly the same schedule.

The only real difference is that a team that works hard all year and wins the conference doesn't get screwed by a prayer in the last game of the conference tournament. Those teams deserve a bid just as much as the conference tournament winners if not more.

And maybe you wouldn't be adding national championship teams but so what? We already know that the winner of the Atlantic Sun tournament is not going to win a national championship, but the beauty is they get a chance unlike in college football.

[Joe Hoya]

Teams no longer have to be .500 overall to get into the NIT. I'm calling this the "We Have To Let St. John's In Or Else Nobody Will Come" rule.