2017 National Invitation Tournament
The 2017 National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 32 NCAA Division I Teams that were not selected to participate in the 2017 NCAA Tournament. The annual tournament was played on campus sites in the first three rounds (the host team being the team with the higher seeding), with the semifinals and championship game being held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The tournament began on Tuesday, March 14 and ended on Thursday, March 30. The NIT Selection Show aired Sunday March 12 on ESPNU. Experimental rules. In February 2017, the NCAA  approved a number of experimental rule changes for use in this tournament: Participants. Automatic qualifiers. The following 10 teams were guaranteed berths into the 2017 NIT field when they failed to receive an at-large NCAA bid by virtue of having won their respective conference's regular season championship and failing to win their conference tournaments. At-large bids. The following 22 teams were also awarded NIT berths. Schedule. The NIT began on Tuesday, March 14. The first three rounds were played at campus sites. The semifinals were held on Tuesday, March 28 and the championship on Thursday, March 30  at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Bracket. <nowiki>†</nowiki> Media. ESPN, Inc. had exclusive television rights. Games were telecast on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, or ESPN3. Westwood One had exclusive radio rights to the semifinals and the championship.