NIT 2022: Known Tournament Info, Format and Championship Dates

In 2020, the National Invitation Tournament was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2021, the field for the event was cut in half to 16 teams and held entirely in the Dallas area. But this year, the NIT will be back to normal.

The 2022 National Invitation Tournament will feature the standard 32 teams, with games during the first three rounds being held on the campuses of the higher seeds. The semifinals and championship game will take place at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

While the best teams in the country will be playing in the NCAA tournament, the NIT gives more programs an opportunity to extend their seasons and play some solid competition in late March. It may not be where these teams wanted to end up, but there will be exciting matchups throughout the event.

Here's everything else you need to know about this year's NIT, which will reveal its bracket after the March Madness selection show on Sunday evening.

    

2022 NIT Schedule

First round: March 15-16

Second round: March 19-20

Quarterfinals: March 22-23

Semifinals: March 29

Championship: March 31

    

Latest NIT Buzz

In the past, the NIT gave automatic bids to teams that won a regular-season conference championship and then failed to win its conference's tournament title. That wasn't the case in 2021, when the field was only 16 teams.

But now that the bracket will be back up to 32 teams, that is again the case. At this point, the following schools are guaranteed to be invited to the NIT: Cleveland State (Horizon), Iona (MAAC), Nicholls (Southland), North Texas (Conference USA), Northern Iowa (MVC), Texas State (Sun Belt), Toledo (MAC) and Towson (CAA).

It's still possible that some of those teams could receive an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament. And in that case, they'll be heading to March Madness. But if that doesn't happen, you can expect to see those teams in the NIT field.

The rest of the NIT bracket will be filled with the best teams to not make it to the NCAA tourney that accepted invitations to the event. So there's a good chance that schools on the wrong side of the bubble could end up playing in the NIT.

ESPN's Joe Lunardi has Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, Wake Forest and Dayton as his first four teams out of the NCAA tournament field. Then, Texas A&M, BYU, Saint Louis and VCU are Lunardi's next four out. Any of these teams that miss out on March Madness will likely be heading to the NIT.

Virginia Tech still has an opportunity to play its way into the NCAA tourney. The Hokies have made it to the championship game of the ACC tournament as the No. 7 seed, and they're set to play top-seeded Duke for the title on Saturday. The winner will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Texas A&M could do the same this weekend. The Aggies, the No. 8 seed in the SEC tournament, upset top-seeded Auburn during quarterfinal action on Friday. They'll now face No. 4 Arkansas on Saturday, and if they win, they'll take on the winner of No. 2 Tennessee vs. No. 3 Kentucky for the title on Sunday.

It's not a surprise that Wake Forest is now included among Lunardi's first four out. The Demon Deacons had a disappointing showing in the ACC tournament, as they lost to No. 13-seeded Boston College in the second round in their first game of the event.

Another team that will likely be heading to the NIT is Florida. In the second round of the SEC tournament, the Gators lost to Texas A&M. If they had hoped to reach March Madness, they likely needed to have a better showing in their conference tourney.

So there are some solid teams that should compose the NIT field, assuming they accept invitations to play in the tournament. The field may not be as strong as the one for the NCAA tourney, but there should still be fun games to watch throughout the event.