NIT 2025: Updated Format, Latest Bracketology Predictions for Men's Tourney
The madness of March isn't solely confined to the NCAA Tournament.
There are other postseason tournaments that can serve up nearly as many nail-biters, with the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) being perhaps the best known.
Historically, this has been where the best non-Big Dancers have gone to close out their campaigns. It's tough to tell if that's still the case (for reasons we'll explain in a bit), but this event will continue to have good teams and great hoops action.
After looking into the format changes for this year's event and highlighting some new competition for the NIT, we'll close by spotlighting some bubble teams who could be in consideration for this event.
NIT Format Changes
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The NIT selection process has been tweaked for this year's event in a way that should allow for more opportunities for mid-major participants.
While last year's filed guaranteed invitations to 12 teams from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pac-12 and SEC, this year's policy is more accessible to everyone. While the top two non-NCAA Tournament teams from the ACC and SEC, the other 12 "exempt" teams are the top non-NCAA Tournament team from the 12 highest-ranked conferences from KenPom. The "top team" designation is determined by averaging out a number of different ranking metrics, including KenPom, ESPN's BPI and NET.
As for the rest of the field, regular-season conference champions who aren't selected to the NCAA Tournament and hold an average ranking in those metrics of 125 or better will receive an automatic NIT invitation. The selection committee will then fill out the remaining spots.
In addition to the selection process tweaks, there is also a rule change for this year's tournament. Coaches are allowed to appeal out-of-bounds calls in the final two minutes of games. They can even challenge a call with no timeouts remaining, although failing that timeout would result in a technical foul, awarding two free throws to the opposition.
New Postseason Tournament
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As far as postseason college tournaments go, there had been a clear hierarchy featuring the NCAA Tournament at the top, the NIT right behind and other events below.
That may no longer be the case, as there's a new kid on the block called the College Basketball Crown (CBC), which could be in direct competition with the NIT for participants.
The CBC is a new 16-team tournament that will be played in Las Vegas from March 31 to April 6 and aired on the Fox networks. This event has a partnership with the Big Ten, Big East and Big 12, who will each get two automatic qualifiers in the field. A selection committee will determine the remaining 10 at-large spots.
The impact and lasting power of a new event is never easy to gauge, but between the broadcasting partnership and marquee location, the CBC could be a significant rival to the NIT.
Bubble Watch
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With conference tournaments in full swing, bracketologists are burning the midnight oil with updated projections for who's in and who's out of the Big Dance. Since the NIT will land at least some of the best teams left out of the mix, these crystal-ball visions should be of utmost importance to the selection committee.
The way ESPN's Joe Lunardi sees things after Wednesday's action, the first four teams out of the NCAA Tournament are Texas, Ohio State, Boise State and Colorado State with Dayton, Wake Forest, UC Irvine and Villanova comprising the next four out. CBS Sports' Jerry Palm put Ohio State, UNC, Wake Forest and Dayton as the first four out in his most recent projections.
The Buckeyes are unable to help themselves at this point, as they were knocked out of the Big Ten Tournament by Iowa. North Carolina and Wake Forest, meanwhile, will clash Thursday afternoon, and the loser of that contest might wind up on the cutting room floor.
The other bubble teams listed above all have opportunities to play their way into the NCAA Tournament, as they are (at the time of this writing, at least) still alive in their respective conference tournaments. Should they fall short, though, they'd all be priority targets for the NIT.
