Inside Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, the National Invitation Tournament will crown a champion on Thursday night. While the winner of the once-storied event—either Seton Hall, Georgia, Indiana State or Utah—will be proudly hoisting the trophy, at least 17 teams reportedly passed on the opportunity to compete for it, up from just two teams who declined participation last year.
It’s the latest conundrum for the NIT, which for decades has fought its reputation as a mere consolation prize for teams that didn’t make the NCAA Tournament. That secondary position is more glaring than ever as NIT participation is threatened by ongoing changes across the NCAA landscape, from athletes making quick dips into the transfer portal to earnings bags of money thanks to NIL.
“It’s not your grandfather’s NCAA anymore,” LaSalle head coach and former NIT committee member Fran Dunphy said in an interview. “The reality is you must adapt to the changes. I don’t see things going back to the way it was.”
The postseason NIT’s value is being weighed as schools making coaching and roster changes are more inclined at season’s end to move on to that element of the offseason instead of playing in the NIT—and that’s not to mention how the postseason tournament could delay starting the NBA pre-draft process for some prospects.
St. John’s coach Rick Pitino, who knows the storied NIT history better than most, passed on the invite to participate. Ole Miss coach Chris Beard skipped because he felt the timing wasn’t right, while Pitt coach Jeff Capel said the decision to pass was best for the student athletes, which includes his starting center Federiko Frederick, who entered the transfer portal.
Former St. Bonaventure athletic director Joe Manhertz, who declined an invite, framed the situation well, stating that playing an NIT road game while dealing with roster uncertainty for next season put the program at a “competitive disadvantage.”
“This is just a new reality in the short term for our business,” NCAA NIT board chair and senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said in an interview. “In my position, you can’t overreact to things. We’re also not going to underreact. I’m not dismissive that there were more opt-outs than maybe we anticipated, but we did anticipate there would be some.”
This year the NIT aimed to be more innovative by altering its bid process with Power Six schools being more prioritized — guaranteeing spots to two teams in each conference that didn’t make the NCAA Tournament. But the change, at the expense of mid-major schools, also contributed to the NIT’s most opt-outs since 2021 postseason when schools were dealing with pandemic-related issues and protocols.
“We look forward to breaking it all down after this year’s tournament and having active discussions with our conferences, coaches and ADs,” Gavitt said. “We’ll continue to navigate how we best structure it going forward.”
It’s worth noting the tournament’s stakeholders can’t offer financial incentives for players. Under NCAA rules, schools still cannot directly enter into NIL deals with athletes (at least for now), which potentially leaves the tournament vulnerable as more players become money-motivated. Proposals for multiteam postseason tournaments with payouts are already being hatched. This list includes a Las Vegas-based event, backed by RedBird IMI, that will offer participating teams up to $2 million in NIL deals.
“I think this next generation of events we’re going to start seeing will cover expenses or even offer financial incentives,” said former NIT committee member and Mountain West Conference commissioner Gloria Nevarez. “With all the financial pressures to provide NIL, it’s really important to our schools.”
Another external factor is FOX Sports’ proposal to create a new postseason college basketball tournament. While it’s still uncertain if the network will move forward with its plan, the tournament would feature Power 5 schools that didn’t qualify for the NCAA Tournament. This potential added wrinkle to the postseason would also undermine the NIT’s selection process and its appeal to TV audiences nationwide.
“How do we continue to keep it relevant and important in a really dynamic and changing landscape?” Gavitt said. “We still don’t have the answers to that. We still don’t know exactly what’s going to happen with the FOX event. We still don’t know the real impact of opt-outs and transfer portal, but I’m more optimistic and bullish than not.”
There’s reason to be optimistic about the future of the NIT. This year’s quarterfinals turned a 33% jump in viewership on ESPN, with two games topping a million viewers.
Additionally, the NIT semifinals and finals are jumping from city to city annually, with Indianapolis being this year’s host after Las Vegas hosted last year. NCAA leaders are weighing whether it’s best financially to find a permanent home or strike annual deals with schools like it has done with UNLV and Butler.
Hinkle Fieldhouse has been different than what fans are typically used to. The cozy 9,100-seat arena is quite the change of scenery from longtime home Madison Square Garden, where the NIT played from 1938 to 1977 before hosting just the semifinals and finals until 2022.
The departure from the iconic site is symbolic of a historic event trying to find its footing in an evolving space. It may have found gold with the Hinkle Fieldhouse, which is sold out for Tuesday night’s semifinal games and the championship on Thursday. Though top-seeded Indiana State’s unprecedented run helps generate more local ticket sales, a smaller and less expensive venue could be a blueprint moving forward.
“MSG is a wonderful venue, and I don’t know about the negotiations or price, but I was there for the last event [in 2022], and it wasn’t the crowd that any of us wanted,” NIT committee chair and New Orleans vice president of athletes Tim Duncan said in an interview. “This year I know we’re getting the crowd that everyone wants. … It gives us an opportunity to see what this tournament can do on the open market.”
While the right location is vital from a marketing and profitability standpoint, getting teams to accept bids and fielding the best possible talent to crown a “national” champion remains pivotal. In the end, every team that opts out has its reasons on passing up the invite.
“It’s not an indictment on the tournament,” Duncan added. “It’s just a sign of the times.”