NIT Bracketology, March 10

There's less than a week until Selection Sunday and the NIT bracket is heating up! Things are also getting sort of wild. Leagues like the SEC and Big East are looking at sending so many teams to the NCAA Tournament that there are not many teams left to play in other postseason events. This actually has the result of freeing up some space in the NIT, which is nice if you're trying to construct a reasonable bracket.

The biggest assumption I made for the bracket is that South Carolina would decline a bid to the NIT. All but three teams in the SEC appear to be headed to the NCAA Tournament (I guess it really is the strongest conference ever). That leaves Texas, LSU and South Carolina on the outside looking in for a conference that gets three exempt bids to the NIT. Would South Carolina really want one of them at 12-19 overall? (I think it's a stretch for LSU to get one at 14-17.) I have the Gamecocks declining, which opens up an at-large spot for a non-exempt team to host (in this case Colorado St.).

Though they're now harder to earn, we already also have one presumed automatic bid for the NIT: Chattanooga. I would expect that a few more teams find their way into the bracket that way as well. Unfortunately, South Alabama's resume isn't quite good enough for them to get an automatic invite (their metrics average looks to be ~136). I could see them getting an invite as a nice gesture from the committee though if a number of teams declined.

Last 6 NCAA Teams (In Order): West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arkansas, San Diego St., Indiana, North Carolina

NIT Bracket:

1. Colorada St.

Santa Clara

4. Georgetown (Big East)

Rutgers

3. LSU (SEC 2)

Chattanooga

2. Wake Forest (ACC 2)

Saint Joseph's

1. Texas (SEC 1)

St. Bonaventure

4. Bradley (MVC)

Iowa

3. North Texas (American)

Florida St.

2. Nebraska (Big Ten)

TCU

1. Boise St. (Mountain West)

Grand Canyon

4. Middle Tennessee (CUSA)

UCF

3. San Francisco (WCC)

Stanford

2. UC Irvine (Big West)

UNLV

1. SMU (ACC 1)

UNC Wilmington

4. Dayton (A10)

Penn St.

3. Kansas St.

Oregon St.

2. Pittsburgh

George Mason

College Basketball Crown:

Ohio St.

Northwestern

Cincinnati

Utah

Villanova

Butler

Also considered: Loyola IL, Georgia Tech, Saint Louis, Troy, CSUN, Northern Iowa, UAB, Stamford, George Washington, Florida Atlantic, North Alabama, South Alabama, Nevada