NIT Tournament 2026 Bracket and Schedule for Men's Semifinals

What was once a 32-team field for the 2026 NIT has now been whittled down to four.

And yet, it remains a highly impressive field.

That's because three of the No. 1 seeds have advanced this far in the bracket, and the other squad still standing is a 23-win Illinois State team. So, even if this March tournament has been a touch light on Madness, it has featured some really good basketball teams playing really good basketball.

After laying out the semifinal schedule, we'll take a closer look at the two matchups.

NIT Semifinal Schedule

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Thursday, April 2

Tulsa vs. New Mexico, 7 p.m. ET on ESPN

Auburn vs. Illinois State, 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN

Tulsa vs. New Mexico

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The Golden Hurricanes and Lobos have taken two different paths to their semifinal destination.

Tulsa opened the tournament by sweating out an overtime win over Stephen F. Austin, then held on for a four-point triumph over Wichita State last round. New Mexico, meanwhile, is still awaiting its first test at the NIT. Their average margin of victory sits at a whopping 21.3 points, and all three of their wins have been decided by at least 15 points.

Could the Lobos finally be challenged here? It's definitely possible. The Golden Hurricanes have the higher ranked offense of the two, and they can really light up from long range. They take a lot of threes, and they make a lot of threes. All five of their top scorers shoot better than 38 percent from distance.

The Lobos, though, are better balanced and therefore more equipped to win games on either end. They're best on defense, but you'd never guess that based on how they've scored in this tournament. Their next game with fewer than 84 points will be their first, thanks in no small part to the combined contributions of freshman guard Jake Hall (19 points per game and 52.4 three-point percentage in the NIT) and freshman forward Tomislav Buljan (21 points per outing on 64.1 percent shooting).

Auburn vs. Illinois State

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The Tigers, a Final Four participant just last season, were one of the most fascinating teams on the NCAA Tournament bubble this season, as they had some super high-quality wins (over Florida, Arkansas and St. John's, among others) but also a lot of losses (17-16 in the regular season). So, when they didn't make that tournament and ended up here instead, it wasn't entirely clear where their motivation would land.

Three wins in three tries later, though, they're ready to rock. The highest ranked team on KenPom that didn't make the Big Dance (40th overall), Auburn hasn't been overwhelmingly dominant, but it has found different ways to make it work. Defense and dirty work drove it to a 78-67 win over South Alabama in the opener, while an offensive eruption helped it handle a 91-85 shootout against Seattle to get here.

Illinois State opened with a 21-point win, but its last two triumphs were decided by a total of nine points. The Redbirds keep finding ways to win—usually by leaning hard on the junior trio of Johnny Kinziger, Chase Walker and Ty Pence.

On paper, this matchup should go Auburn's way. It has a decidedly more impressive resume, even with a busier loss column. But paper sometimes goes out the window this time of year, as anything can happen in a single-elimination setup.