Men’s College Basketball: ESPN Exclusively Present the National Invitation Tournament
- ESPN networks to air all 31 games
- Semifinals and Championship Games at Madison Square Garden
The 80th annual National Invitation Tournament (NIT) will air exclusively on ESPN networks beginning with the first round (March 14-15), followed by the second round (March 16-20) and quarterfinals (March 21-22), all from campus locations. The NIT will conclude on ESPN with the semifinals (March 28) and championship (March 30) games from New York’s historic Madison Square Garden with Bob Wischusen and Fran Fraschilla will be on the call of the games.
The NIT opens with NCAA Tournament bubble team Syracuse against UNC Greensboro, the automatic qualifier from the Southern Conference on Tuesday, March 14 (ESPN, 7 p.m.), followed by a matchup between the Big Ten’s Indiana at the ACC’s Georgia Tech (ESPN, 9 p.m.). Wednesday’s action includes automatic qualifiers – Illinois State of the Missouri Valley against UC Irvine of the Big West (ESPNU, 9:30 p.m.).
The complete 32-team field was announced on ESPNU’s NIT Selection Special (March 12). All NIT games will also be available through WatchESPN, accessible on computers, smartphones, tablets and streaming devices to fans who receive their video subscription from an affiliated provider.
The complete bracket is available here.
NIT Field Highlights
- 1 Seeds: California, Illinois State, Iowa and Syracuse
- 20+ Wins: 21 teams in the field have at least 20 victories with Illinois State and Monmouth both recording 27 wins on the season
- Conferences: A total of 20 (of 32) Division I conferences are represented
- Automatic Qualifiers: 10 teams were automatic qualifiers by virtue of winning their conference’s regular-season title
| Conference | Team |
| Big West | UC Irvine |
| Horizon | Oakland |
| Metro Atlantic | Monmouth |
| Mid-American | Akron |
| Missouri Valley | Illinois State |
| Ohio Valley | Belmont |
| Summit | South Dakota |
| Southern | UNC Greensboro |
| Sun Belt | UT Arlington |
| Western Athletic | CSU Bakersfield |
- At Large Bids: 22 teams received at-large bids
| Conference | Team |
| American Athletic | Houston |
| UCF | |
| Atlantic Coast | Clemson |
| Georgia Tech | |
| Syracuse | |
| Big Ten | Illinois |
| Indiana | |
| Iowa | |
| Big 12 | TCU |
| Colonial Athletic | College of Charleston |
| Atlantic-10 | Richmond |
| Horizon | Valparaiso |
| Mountain West | Boise State |
| Colorado State | |
| Fresno State | |
| Pac-12 | California |
| Colorado | |
| Utah | |
| SEC | Alabama |
| Georgia | |
| Ole Miss | |
| West Coast | BYU |
First-Round NIT Coverage (Schedule subject to change)
| Date | Time | Game and Commentators | Network |
| Tues, Mar 14 | 7 p.m. | UNC Greensboro at Syracuse
Rich Hollenberg, Mark Plansky |
ESPN |
| Ole Miss at Monmouth
Jay Harris, Rob Kennedy |
ESPN3 | ||
| 7:15 p.m. | Valparaiso at Illinois
Doug Sherman, Sean Harrington |
ESPN2 | |
| 8 p.m. | Oakland at Clemson
Roy Philpott, Stephen Howard |
ESPNU | |
| 9 p.m. | Indiana# at Georgia Tech
Mike Morgan, Paul Biancardi |
ESPN | |
| Charleston at Colorado State
Trey Bender, Richie Schueler |
ESPN3 | ||
| 9:15 p.m. | Richmond at Alabama
Dave Neal, Dalen Cuff |
ESPN2 | |
| 10 p.m. | Boise State at Utah
Sam Farber, Corey Williams |
ESPNU | |
| 11:15 p.m. | CSU Bakersfield at California
Roxy Bernstein, Miles Simon |
ESPN2 | |
| Wed, Mar 15 | 7 p.m. | South Dakota at Iowa
Kevin Brown, Bryndon Manzer |
ESPN2 |
| Belmont at Georgia
Dave Weekley, Stan Lewter |
ESPN3 | ||
| Colorado at UCF
Drew Fellios, Mark Wise |
ESPN3 | ||
| 7:30 p.m. | Akron at Houston
Alex Faust, Reid Gettys |
ESPNU | |
| 8 p.m. | Fresno State at TCU
Jim Barbar, Mike O’Donnell |
ESPN3 | |
| 9 p.m. | UT Arlington at BYU
Eric Rothman, Corey Williams |
ESPN2 | |
| 9:30 p.m. | UC Irvine at Illinois State
Mitch Holthus, Mark Adams |
ESPNU |
# – Indiana is the home team, despite playing at Georgia Tech
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