NIT Board announces changes to NIT and use of experimental rules
The NIT has announced a number of changes to the tournament format, including the selection process, court regulations and timeout policy.
www.ncaa.com
"For the 2024 NIT, conference regular season champions that do not win their conference tournament or are not otherwise selected to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship will not receive an automatic bid to the NIT. Instead, the NIT will guarantee two teams (based on the NET rankings) from each of six conferences (Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern). The top two teams in the NET rankings not qualifying for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament from each conference, regardless of won-loss record, will be selected. Additionally, the 12 teams automatically selected will be guaranteed the opportunity to host a game in the first round of the NIT.
Once the 12 automatic qualifying schools have been selected, the NIT Committee will select the 20 best teams available to complete the tournament’s 32-team field. Based on the NIT Committee’s evaluation, the best four teams of the 20 at-large teams selected will complete the 16 first round hosts, with deference given to the “first four teams out” of the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, as determined by the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball. Additional teams from the six conferences with AQs are eligible to be selected as at-large teams and can be selected as hosts."
In other words, no more autobids to the NIT for being a regular-season champion of a conference. The top two teams in NET rankings from the Power 6 (sorry, Aresco, not you) that did not get bids to the dance will get autobids to the NIT, and no longer will teams with losing records be disqualified from the NIT. - and they get 1st-round hosting. Then 20 at-large teams will be picked by committee.
