2019 National Invitation Tournament
The 2019 National Invitation Tournament (NIT) was a single-elimination tournament of 32 NCAA Division I men's college basketball teams that were not selected to participate in the 2019 NCAA Tournament. The tournament started on March 19, and concluded on April 4. The first three rounds were played on campus sites with the higher seeded team acting as host. The semifinals and championship game were held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Experimental rules. On February 22, 2019, the NCAA announced a set of experimental rules that were used in this edition of  the NIT. The following rules were also used in the 2018 NIT: A set of rules relating to free throws that had been used in the 2017 NIT were used again in the 2019 edition, with one modification: Participants. Automatic qualifiers. The following teams were guaranteed berths into the 2019 NIT field by having the best regular season record in their conference but failing to win their conference tournament. Such teams were eligible to receive an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament but did not. At-large bids. The following teams were also awarded NIT berths. Bracket. <nowiki>*</nowiki > Denotes overtime period. Media. ESPN, Inc. had exclusive television rights to all of the NIT Games. It telecast every game across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPN3. Westwood One had exclusive radio rights to the semifinals and the championship.