I was surprised to not only see San Jose St in the field, but also a #4 seed. I expected to see Oregon St too, especially with all of the first four out of NCAA opting out. Unless, the Beavers declined an invitation too.
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What Lucas said. Hopefully, the embarrassment with P’dine will be a motivation and a lesson not to get complacent.
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Looking at the other “region” in the NIT…assuming we can get to the final game, we could have some potential rematches: USF…or Stanford…or Bradley. I’d love to see a rematch against Stanford.
I doubt SJSU can make much progress in this tournament. I am shocked they made it in. 15-19? Really?
In a semifinal, we could go up against St. Louis again.
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It’s the Broncos we can beat or lose to anyone…. Like the Pepp game looks easy but we’ve seen both movies ….
Hope we cruise…
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Weak field but may as well win it. Go Broncos.
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I suspect both OSU and WSU declined the NIT.
Maybe they’re angling for the Crown tourney???
SJSU is 15-19 but only 13 D1 wins and ranked #152 on Torvik. Riverside #151, Furman #142, Samford #137, Jacksonvile St. #132, CS-Northridge #128…you get the picture.
Only 4 power 4 conference schools - Stanford
,
Ok state , SMU and GA tech
If they don’t, they won’t…
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I actually think it’s based on a new autobid system whereby the top team not selected for the Tournament in the top 12 conferences (by KenPom) gets an automatic bid to the NIT and, I believe, a protected home game. So basically Nevada and UNLV and Boise refused the NIT which gave a bid and a home game to lowly SJSU. The other low-ranked teams might be products of that system as well.
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For the laughable files… UC Riverside is not only currently listed in the NIT, but also the CBI… now that’s ambitious!!!
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Johnny O’Neil’s former school , American, is dancing
Maybe.
But worth noting there isn’t a single B10, SEC or Big East school in the field. Clearly a bunch were offered and turned it down.
After this experience, I suspect they’ll change the rules again.
They should probably go back to autobid for schools who win their league but don’t win their conf tourney and without the other random qualifiers…those schools are usually lower tier leagues and they’re unlikely to turn down the invite. They changed the rules to favor the power conf schools but most of those schools don’t want to play in the NIT.
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This is where my concept of using the NIT as the “play-in” game for the #33-96 teams comes into play. No one would turn down the chance to get into Big Dance, and I think it would be unlikely that a team would abandon the NIT after starting in the tournament. It would also minimize the so-called “bubble teams” – the disappointment of the first four out (seeds 97-100) would far less than seeds 65-68 (or I guess 69-72 now).
It would also increase the aggregate revenue of both tournaments.
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South Carolina and LSU are claiming injuries for declining the NIT.
I think College Basketball Crown and Fox Sports have a contractual deal for top 2 non tourney teams from Big 10, SEC and Big East. Indiana meanwhile has refused all postseason play.
On the 2025 NIT Wiki page, by my count 14 schools declined NIT invites
Oregon State and Wazzu both in the College Basketball Crown. The CBC is all power conference teams from the Fox conferences (Big East, B12, B10) plus at-large spots to Tulane, Boise, George Washington, and our erstwhile Pac-12 affiliates. Apparently, there is a cash prize of something like $500k to the winning team. But the timing is awful, and I expect several of these teams to have players leaving via the transfer portal before they even play a game.
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Vaguely interesting that four Bay Area teams are in the NIT - USF, Santa Clara, SJSU, and Stanford.
Inclusion of SJSU, though, speaks to how far it has fallen. No offense, Spartans - but it defies reason that a sub-.500 team would be in the NIT at all.
Seem like the CBC and NIT would be a more accretive product, in terms of eyeballs, together rather than separate. But the NCAA owns the NIT and I think those bigger leagues are hell-bent on autonomy (and collecting those most dollars they can for themselves).
Yup. CBS has the rights to the men’s tournament. Disney/ESPN have the women’s tournament. Fox just looked around and realized they might be able to take advantage of the big conferences looking for a payout and decided to create their own thing to compete with or in this case pick away at the NIT.
NCAA, NIT, CBC, CIT, CBIT! Lions and tigers and bears! Oh my! This is making my head spin.
Not surprising that the power conference pushed for a change to the NIT draw and then when Fox dangled some dollars, the power conferences gave the NCAA the middle finger. I don’t know how the NCAA makes the NIT relevant again if the NIT can’t compete with cash prizes on a neutral court. Can’t recall how the finances work for the NIT. I think the home team gets reimbursed for hosting expenses, but that may be about it.
If one extrapolates this out…what is to prevent Fox from dangling even more money to more schools–just like LIV and golf–and extracts the top X teams from the NCAA tournament.
I assume SCU and USF, des
Curiosities…
The early CBC games are at the MGM, capacity 17,500. Semis and Finals at T-Mobile. Capacity 20,000. I wonder how attendance will be. Will fans travel (they’ve got two weeks to plan, but the early games are mid week)? Will locals attend given that they have already had a number of college tournaments there already? If I was an absolute hoops junkie, this wouldn’t be a bad trip, if the teams were of just a bit higher caliber. Six days in vegas. 15 games.
The CBC teams get two weeks to prepare. I wonder how much rust they will show.
Tournament takes place in the “dead” week of the Final Four. Smart scheduling. I assume the early games will get a watch. I assume the semis will be played before the NCAA semis. The final is on Sunday. So, all games seem to have a window of their own. Assuming there is a taste for it.