What's this all
about? Teams not qualifying for the NCAA basketball tournament have the
option of going into one of three other postseason tournaments:
The
NIT features a 32-team field chosen right after the NCAA
chooses the 65 teams in its tournament. Both the CBI and
CollegeInsider.com tournaments will feature 16 teams. While the
CBI
will compete with the NIT for teams, the CollegeInsider.com tournament
will wait until the NIT finalizes its bracket. In addition, the
CollegeInsider tournament requires teams to have a .500 record or
better while the NIT and CBI do not have such a
requirement. Also, due to the pay-to-play nature of the CBI and
CIT tournaments, colleges have been known to decline an invitation to
either tournament.
With the introduction of the Great West conference this year, the
tournament champion from this conference will be granted an automatic
berth to the CIT.
If history is any indication, in 2009, the CollegeInsider field was
limited to mid-major teams (or below) and both the CBI and CIT fields
featured teams with a RPI as high as 175. Contact: bracketproject@gmail.com