NIT announces major format changes to selection process, experimental rules

The NIT has announced new changes to its postseason tournament, including a new selection process.

Regular season champions who do not win their conference tournament will no longer receive an automatic bid. Instead, two teams that do not make the NCAA Tournament from each of the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC will receive automatic bids based on NET rankings. Win-loss records will not count.

After those teams are selected, 20 at-large teams will be chosen.

All 12 automatic bids from the Power Six conferences will have the right to host their first round games. The other four hosts will come from the at-large teams. Teams designated as “Last Four Out” of the NCAA Tournament will have priority.

“The postseason college basketball landscape is becoming more competitive for teams that don’t qualify for March Madness,” Dan Gavitt, NIT Board Chair and NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball, said in a statement. “The change to the selection process for the 2024 NIT is a necessary effort to evolve this historic tournament in a dynamic event marketplace.”

The NIT will also widen the lane from 12 feet to 16 feet, like in the NBA.

The tournament will also continue with its new timeout structure it implemented this past year. Second-half timeouts will happen at the 17-, 14-, eight- and four-minute marks.

NIT undergoing changes in recent years

The NIT of 2024 will look a lot different than the NIT of yesteryear.

Prior to the pandemic, the NIT Finals had been held at Madison Square Garden every year in the tournament’s existence. In the early years of the tournament when there was a smaller field, all games were held at the Garden in New York City.

Things changed in 2020 when the tournament was canceled for the first time ever. The event returned in 2021 with 16 teams and held at a bubble in North Texas. The tournament returned to Manhattan in 2022.

But after that event, it was announced the NIT would take its finals away from Madison Square Garden. The semifinals and finals of last year’s event were held at Orleans Arena in Paradise, Nev.

North Texas defeated UAB in the finals.

This year’s NIT semifinals and finals will be held at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

St. John’s has won the most NITs with five titles. This century, 15 of the 22 non-vacated titles won have been clinched by current Power Six programs.