MBB Totally missed these changes with the NIT ...

[Triple B]

... and not sure how I feel about them. Know most don't really care, it's NCAA's or nothing, but it was still a nice minimal reward for teams that got through grueling conference play to win the regular season but upset in the conf tourney. Now, winning the regular season doesn't mean **** as far as the top 2 post season tournaments go.

Regular-season conference champions who don't make the NCAA Tournament will no longer receive an automatic bid to the NIT under new selection criteria announced Friday by the NCAA. Instead, the top two teams in the NET rankings from each of the major six conferences (ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-12, SEC) that did not qualify for the NCAA Tournament will earn the first 12 NIT automatic bids and have the right to host first-round games. 

The move puts the squeeze on low- and mid-major programs who win their conference's regular season title but fail to win their conference tournament and thus miss out on an automatic NCAA Tournament bid. Under the previous format, such schools were still guaranteed a national showcase opportunity through the NIT.

"I was surprised and disappointed in the action announced today by the NIT Board of Managers, approximately one week prior to the start of the 2023-24 season," said MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher. "To make such a substantive change to the NIT structure without providing a satisfactory explanation or building the foundation for such a change is troubling and leaves student-athletes, coaches, and fans in a state of uncertainty. Today's announcement is leading me to focus even more on the discussion around the possible expansion of the NCAA Tournament and I will marshal our membership's attention to that issue."

In its announcement of changes to the NIT for 2024, the NCAA said that it will "select the 20 best teams available to complete the tournament's 32-team field" after the 12 automatic bids are handed out to power conference schools. The other four hosting schools will be the "best" of the 20 at-large teams.

"The postseason college basketball landscape is becoming more competitive for teams that don't qualify for March Madness," said Dan Gavitt, NIT board chair and NCAA senior vice president of basketball. "The change to the selection process for the 2024 NIT is a necessary effort to evolve this historic tournament in a dynamic event marketplace."

Using the 2024 criteria, here are the teams that would have earned the 12 automatic bids for last season's NIT:

• ACC: Clemson, Virginia Tech (North Carolina declined an invitation) 
• Big 12: Oklahoma State, Texas Tech 
• Big East: Villanova, Seton Hall 
• Big Ten: Rutgers, Ohio State 
• Pac-12: Oregon, Colorado 
• SEC: Florida, Vanderbilt

Of that group, Texas Tech was 16-16 (5-13 Big 12) and Ohio State was 16-19 (5-15 Big Ten).

[John Lewis]

That's terrible

[Gat-Rat Bull]

28 minutes ago, Triple B said:

Of that group, Texas Tech was 16-16 (5-13 Big 12) and Ohio State was 16-19 (5-15 Big Ten).

This is too dumb to be funny. Could the NET be too biased toward strength of schedule? How about at least having a winning record to get invited to the NIT?

[Professor BullDawg]

The NIT obviously believes that more people will watch poor/mediocre P4 teams than good teams from the G5. Such a shame.

[Triple B]

41 minutes ago, Triple B said:

Of that group, Texas Tech was 16-16 (5-13 Big 12) and Ohio State was 16-19 (5-15 Big Ten).

 

9 minutes ago, Gat-Rat Bull said:

This is too dumb to be funny. Could the NET be too biased toward strength of schedule? How about at least having a winning record to get invited to the NIT?

Probably ..... TTU and OSU were ranked #63 and #52 respectively so the sched must have definitely played a part. Rewarded for going 5-15/5-13 in conf is crazy.

[Triple B]

9 minutes ago, Professor BullDawg said:

The NIT obviously believes that more people will watch poor/mediocre P4 teams than good teams from the G5. Such a shame.

In basketball it's P6, for this year anyway ....

[belgianbull]

The new NIT selection process is absolute bs. In basketball you dont have the level difference between Power 6 and everyone else. Last year two non power 6 teams were in the Final Four ( FAU and San Diego State).

Right now you have four non power 6 teams ranked in the top 25 and 10 receiving votes.

 

 

Edited February 4 by belgianbull

[flsportsfan83]

2 minutes ago, belgianbull said:

The new NIT selection process is absolute bs. In basketball you dont have the level difference between Power 6 and everyone else. Last year two non power 6 teams were in the Final Four ( FAU and San Diego State).

Right now you have four non power 6 teams ranked in the top 25 and 10 receiving votes.

 

 

Its another reason we really need to get out of the AAC hell. Its just awful across the board, and its gonna get worse.

 

Sad thing is we did this to ourselves.

[usfrank]

I believe the controlling body here is ESPN, so they can make money with larger market/conference teams.  

[Triple B]

3 minutes ago, flsportsfan83 said:

Sad thing is we did this to ourselves.