INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The 2022-23 Bradley Braves’ men’s basketball campaign was rewarded with an automatic bid to the National Invitational Tournament, based on the regular season Missouri Valley Conference championship they won.
But changes announced Friday by the NCAA to the format of the 2024 NIT may take away an opportunity for postseason play.
The NCAA says the automatic bids awarded to regular season conference champions has been eliminated. Instead, the top two teams in the NET rankings for each of the Power Six conferences, who also did not make the NCAA Tournament, will receive automatic bids.
The Power Six conferences include the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-12, and Southeastern.
The remaining 20 spots in the NIT field will be at-large selections.
“The postseason college basketball landscape is becoming more competitive for teams that don’t qualify for March Madness,” said NIT board chair and NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt. “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 continue to use experimental rules in the event for 2024. This year’s change will be a widening of the free-throw lane from 12 feet to 16 feet, a width used in the NBA and FIBA competitions.
The 2024 NIT is scheduled to start on March 19th, with the semifinals and final April 2nd and 4th at Hinkle Fieldhouse on the Butler University campus in Indianapolis.
