what was different last year?

[zippyrifle32]

what did we do differently to get into the nit last year, when clearly this year's team is much better. i'm still at a loss.

[timmyboy]

because they narrowed it down to 32 teams (i believe thats the number) from 42 or 48. but that is stupid, akron should have gotten in with 26 wins, and wins over teams in botht he NIT and NCAA tourney. no one has had this many wins and been shut out of a post season tourney since 1985... we were screwed!

[zip81]

This rule the NIT has of being required to include regular season champions who do not make the NCAA....is that new?I have never heard of that one before.

[timmyboy]

This rule the NIT has of being required to include regular season champions who do not make the NCAA....is that new?I have never heard of that one before.

yea i do believe they made that a new rule when they lowered the field from 40 somthing teams to 32. at least i thought i heard that somewhere, but heck im ignorant from what i was told from the MAC associate commissioner, so im probably wrong ha ha

[Dr Z]

what did we do differently to get into the nit last year, when clearly this year's team is much better. i'm still at a loss.

The NCAA announced a revamped selection process starting with the 2006 tournament. The main highlights are: * Teams are no longer required to have .500 or greater records to receive bids. This may have an effect on the last few teams invited. However, in 2006, all teams qualifying for the NIT had a record greater than .500. * All teams that won regular-season conference championships but failed to earn NCAA tournament bids are guaranteed places in the NIT. Thus, more teams from the low-major conferences may qualify. (Mid-major regular season conference champions have traditionally been invited.)In addition, the selection process has been made transparent. ESPN will no longer help select the teams. Instead, a committee of six former NCAA head coaches, C. M. Newton (Alabama), Dean Smith (North Carolina), Don DeVoe (Tennessee), Reggie Minton, John Powers and Carroll Williams, prepared a list of potential teams in advance. The seeding and balancing process is similar to that of the NCAA tournament, with the exception that higher seeded teams will always host games, unless extenuating circumstances occur. In the past, higher seeded mid-major teams would often be forced to travel to play less highly regarded major conference teams that would be likely to sell more tickets to the game [3].Furthermore, ESPN will continue to provide television coverage of the tournament. The NIT has a 10-year, $24.1 million contract with ESPN; this compares with the 11-year, $6.2 billion TV contract with CBS for the NCAA tournament.These changes are intended to encourage participation by good college teams that would rather stay home than play in the NIT – to make it the "Little Dance" instead of the "loser's tournament." NIT Committee Chairman C. M. Newton stated, "What we want to have is a true basketball event, a real tournament, one where there's no preconceived ideas of who gets to New York. We'd love to have great crowds, but this is not a financial consideration. We want good television coverage, but were not going to play this thing for television and move games around." [4]. Another positive consideration is that a #1-seeded team that goes to the semifinals will have three home games, which helps ticket sales.Beginning with the 2007 NIT tournament, the field for the NIT will be reduced to 32 schools from 40, the number chosen since 2002. The tournament will feature four eight-team regions.The new format — actually a return to the 32-team field used by the NIT from 1980-2001 — will eliminate the event's eight-game opening round, in which lower-seeded teams played for second-round berths against the eight highest seeds. The reduction will not affect the NIT's automatic bid to any regular-season conference champion that does not make the NCAA's field of 65. Seven teams earned an NIT bid that way in 2006.