National Invitation Tournament The National Invitation Tournament ( NIT ) is a men ' s college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association ( NCAA ) . There are two NIT events each season . The first , played in November and known as the NIT Season Tip - Off ( formerly the Preseason NIT ) , was founded in 1985 . The second , the original NIT , is a post - season tournament played in March and April that is now called the NIT — it was founded in 1938 . In both cases , the final rounds of the tournament are played at Madison Square Garden in New York City . In both common and official use , " NIT " or " National Invitation Tournament " refers to the post - season tournament unless otherwise qualified . Both the pre - and post - season tournaments were operated by the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association ( MIBA ) up until 2005 , when they were purchased by the NCAA . History . The post - season NIT , started in 1938 , pre - dates the NCAA Tournament by one year and is second in age only to the NAIA Tournament founded by James Naismith in 1937 . This first National Invitation Tournament was won by the Temple University Owls over the Colorado Buffaloes . The NIT was originated by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association in 1938 . Responsibility for its administration was transferred two years later to local colleges , first known as the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Committee and in 1948 , as the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association ( MIBA ) , which comprised representatives from five New York City schools : Fordham University , Manhattan College , New York University , St . John ' s University , and Wagner College . Originally all of the teams qualifying for the tournament were invited to New York City , and all games were played at Madison Square Garden . The tournament originally consisted of only 6 teams , which later expanded to 8 teams in 1941 , 12 teams in 1949 , 14 teams in 1965 , 16 teams in 1968 , 24 teams in 1979 , 32 teams in 1980 , and 40 teams from 2002 through 2006 . In 2007 , the tournament reverted to the current 32 team format . In the tournaments ' early years , some teams played in the NIT instead of the NCAA tournament for several reasons : Several teams played in both the NIT and NCAA tournaments in the same year , with Colorado and Duquesne being the first to do so in 1940 . Colorado won the NIT in 1940 but subsequently finished fourth in the NCAA West Region . In 1944 , Utah lost its first game in the NIT but then proceeded to win the NCAA Tournament . In 1949 , eventual NCAA champion Kentucky suffered elimination in the NIT before going on to win the NCAA . In 1950 , City College of New York won both the NIT and the NCAA tournaments in the same season , coincidentally defeating Bradley University in the championship game of both tournaments , and remains the only school to accomplish that feat . The Helms Athletic Foundation retroactively selected the NIT champion as its national champion for 1938 ( Temple ) , and chose the NIT champion over the NCAA champion once , in 1939 ( Long Island ) . More recently , the mathematically based Premo - Poretta Power Poll published in the " ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia " retroactively ranked teams for each season prior to 1949 , with the NIT champion finishing ahead of the NCAA champion in 1939 and 1941 . Between 1939 and 1970 , when teams could compete in both tournaments , only DePaul ( 1945 ) , Utah ( 1947 ) , and San Francisco ( 1949 ) claim or celebrate national championships for their teams based solely on an NIT championship , although Long Island recognizes its selection as the 1939 national champion by the Helms Athletic Foundation . In 1943 the NCAA tournament moved to share Madison Square Garden with the NIT in an effort to increase the credibility of the NCAA Tournament . In 1945 , " The New York Times " indicated that many teams that could potentially get bids to enter either tournament , which was not uncommon in that day . In any case , since the mid 1950 ' s , the NCAA tournament has been popularly regarded by most individuals as the major post season tourney , with conference champions and the majority of the top - ranked teams participating in it . Nevertheless , the NIT continued to be regarded highly into the late 1950s , with several teams , including BYU , DePaul University , and Saint Louis claiming a national championship based on their respective NIT titles . As late as 1970 , Coach Al McGuire of Marquette , the 8th - ranked team in the final AP poll of the season , spurned an NCAA at - large invitation because the Warriors were going to be placed in the NCAA Midwest Regional ( Fort Worth , Texas ) instead of closer to home in the Mideast Regional ( Dayton , Ohio ) . The team played in the NIT instead , which it won . This led the NCAA to decree that any school to which it offered a bid must accept it or be prohibited from participating in postseason competition . As the NCAA over time expanded its field to include more teams , the reputation of the NIT suffered . When the NCAA eliminated the one - team - per - conference rule in 1975 , the National Invitation Tournament had become merely a post - season showcase for good teams that did not make the NCAA grade . NCAA takes control . In 2005 , the NCAA purchased 10 - year rights to the NIT from the MIBA for $ 56 . 5 million to settle an antitrust lawsuit , which had actually come to trial and was being argued until very shortly before the settlement was announced . The MIBA alleged that compelling teams to accept invitations to the NCAA tournament even if they preferred to play in the NIT was an illegal use of the NCAA ' s powers . ( This rule was instituted after Al McGuire ' s aforementioned snub in 1970 . ) In addition , it argued that the NCAA ' s expansion of its tournament to 65 teams was designed specifically to bankrupt the NIT . Faced with the very real possibility of being found in violation of federal antitrust law for the third time in its history , the NCAA chose to settle . ( The first two violations related to restricting of college football on TV and capping assistant coach salaries ) . As part of the purchase of the NIT by the NCAA , the MIBA disbanded for the 10 - year duration . The reputation of the NIT . The status of the post - season National Invitation Tournament as a " consolation " fixture has led to somewhat of a stigma in the minds of many fans . When teams with tenuous hopes of an NCAA Tournament berth lose away from home late in the season , opposing fans may taunt the players in the closing seconds with chants of " NIT ! NIT ! " . This is done regardless of whether the home team is headed for the NCAA Tournament or not . Irv Moss , a journalist for the " Denver Post " , once wrote of such a taunt to a defeated team , " The three - letter word . . . was far more cutting than any four - letter word they could have hollered . " Because the post - season NIT consists of teams that failed to receive a berth in the NCAA Tournament , the NIT has been nicknamed the " Not Invited Tournament " , " Never Important Tournament " , " Nobody ' s Interested Tournament " , " Needs Improvement Tournament " , " No Important Team " , " National Insignificant Tournament , " or simply " Not In Tournament " . It has also been called a tournament to see who the " 69th best team " in the country is ( since there are now 68 teams in the NCAA Tournament ) . David Thompson , an All - America n player from North Carolina State , called the NIT " a loser ' s tournament " in 1975 . N . C . State , which had been the previous year ' s NCAA champion , refused to play in the tournament that year , following the precedent set by ACC rival Maryland the previous season after losing the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game to the top - ranked Wolfpack . In succeeding years , other teams such as Oklahoma State , Louisville , Georgia Tech , and Georgetown have declined to play in the NIT when they did not make the NCAA tournament . One such team was Maryland ; after being rejected by the NCAA selection committee in 2006 , head coach Gary Williams announced that 19 - 11 Maryland would not go to the NIT , only to be told that the university had previously agreed to use Comcast Center as a venue for the NIT . The Terrapins were eliminated in the first round by the Manhattan College Jaspers . In 2008 , however , Williams announced that if invited , the Terps would play , because it would serve as a chance to further develop six freshman players on his squad and to give senior forward James Gist more exposure . At UCLA ' s famous Pauley Pavilion , there are individual championship banners for all 11 NCAA titles , various other banners touting many other NCAA and other tournament championships for other sports , but no mention of UCLA ' s 1985 NIT championship . For other teams , however , the NIT is perceived as a step up in a program climbing from mediocrity or obscurity , and the response is more enthusiastic . For example , at the University of Tulsa , which won the NIT in 1981 and 2001 , the Golden Hurricane ' s NIT " championship tradition " is viewed with pride and as a " lure " for players to join the program . The NIT Season Tip - Off carries none of the postseason tournament ' s stigma , and is one of many popular season - opening tournaments held every year around the country ( alongside events such as the Maui Invitational and the Great Alaska Shootout ) . Selection process . In the past , NIT teams were selected in consultation with ESPN , the television home of the NIT . The goal of the NIT was to sustain the MIBA financially . Therefore , schools selected to play in the NIT were often major conference teams with records near . 500 that had large television fan bases and would likely have a respectable attendance for tournament games on their home court . The latter is one reason why New Mexico was invited virtually every year — the Lobos had a winning season but failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament . Seeding considerations and home court advantage included the number of fans willing to show up to each game . In an effort to maintain some quality , a rule saying that a team must have a . 500 record to qualify for the NIT was imposed . This prevented ESPN from suggesting major conference teams that finished at or very near the bottom of their conference standings but would likely garner good fan interest . The NCAA announced a revamped selection process starting with the 2006 tournament . The main highlights are : In addition , the selection process has been made transparent . ESPN no longer had a hand in the selection of the teams . Instead , a committee of former NCAA head coaches , chaired by Newton , and including Gene Keady ( Purdue ) , Don DeVoe ( Tennessee ) , Rudy Davalos , Les Robinson ( NC State ) , Reggie Minton ( Air Force ) , John Powers , and Carroll Williams among others , prepared a list of potential teams in advance . ESPN continues to provide television coverage of the tournament . In 2011 the NCAA and ESPN agreed to a $ 500 million agreement through 2023 – 24 for rights to cover championships in several sports , including the NIT ; 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 " . 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 we ' re not going to play this thing for television and move games around . " Beginning with the 2007 tournament , the field for the NIT returned to the 32 - team field used from 1980 through 2001 , eliminating the eight " play - in " opening round where teams played to qualify for second round games against the top eight seeds . The tournament features four eight - team regions . The format did not affect the NIT ' s automatic bid to any regular - season conference champion that does not make the NCAA ' s field of 65 ( since 2011 , 68 ) . Seven teams earned an NIT bid that way in 2006 . A new attendance record for a NIT game was set at Syracuse University ' s Carrier Dome on March 19 , 2007 at the Syracuse - San Diego State game . Syracuse won the game 80 – 64 with the attendance total of 26 , 752 . The old record of 23 , 522 was set by Kentucky in 1979 . Women ' s tournaments . Since 1969 , there has been a Women ' s National Invitation Tournament . It began as an eight - team tournament in Amarillo , Texas , expanding to 64 teams by 2010 . However , this is affiliated with the NIT in name only . It was not connected with MIBA and was not purchased by the NCAA .