Jeff BorzelloESPN Editor2 minute read
Recent changes to the postseason NIT were made in direct response to a new postseason tournament set to begin as early as 2025, leaving the future of the 85-year-old tournament in jeopardy.
“The very viability of the event could be compromised,” Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball, said Wednesday.
Last week, the NIT Board of Directors announced that regular season champions who do not win their conference tournaments and are not selected for the NCAA Tournament will not receive an automatic offer to NIT. Instead, the NIT will guarantee bids from two teams from each of the six power conferences as well as two spots for the top two teams in the NET rankings that were not selected to the NCAA Tournament.
The changes were criticized by commissioners and head coaches of the major conferences.
Gavitt said Wednesday the changes were necessary in order to compete with the new playoff tournament in the works.
“The NIT has a credible and imminent new challenge in the competitive playoff arena. All indications are that a new playoff event is planned to begin in 2025,” Gavitt said. “The event is well organized, imagined and funded with a competitive broadcast component and venue.
“As a result of all of this, we believe we needed to change and evolve the NIT to compete with the best teams and conferences available, given the new postseason opportunities presented to them. The changes are a preemptive attempt to keep the NIT viable in the long term. -term, frankly.”
Gavitt was referring to a new tournament featuring the top 16 teams from the Big East, Big Ten and Big 12 that did not make the NCAA Tournament. The Messenger reported in September that Fox Sports was behind the event, which would take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“It’s really a luxury that we held the tournament in a non-competitive environment,” Gavitt said. “And this scenario is changing.”
“I can tell you unequivocally, this event was going to take place in 2024,” he added. “This is not an imagined challenge.”
Gavitt also addressed concerns that the changes to the NIT were a precursor to similar changes in the NCAA Tournament — more power conference teams, fewer mid-majors — saying those fears were not “justified”.
“Events are run by very different groups, with very different realities, in a competitive market,” Gavitt said. “There should be no connection that is made. At no point in the short time has the men’s basketball committee discussed expanding the NCAA tournament field, anything close to , even remotely, this subject or this way of considering how to organize a tournament has not been considered.
“We currently have automatic qualifiers from 32 conferences; in the NCAA Championship, we have 36 spots overall. If the tournament expanded, you would think there would be more opportunities overall for all 32 conferences.”
