2010 National Invitation Tournament

The 2010 National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 32 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I teams that were not selected to participate in the 2010 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. The 73rd annual tournament began on March 16 on campus sites and ended on April 1 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Dayton won their 3rd NIT title over North Carolina, 79–68.

Participants

Automatic qualifiers

The following teams were automatic qualifiers for the 2010 NIT field after losing in their respective conference tournaments, by virtue of winning their conferences' regular season championship and not qualifying for the NCAA tournament.

Team	Conference	Record	Appearance	Last bid
Coastal Carolina	Big South	28–6	1st	Never
	SWAC	19–12	2nd	1993
*	Atlantic Sun men's basketball tournament\|Atlantic Sun]	19–12	6th	2009
Kent State	MAC	23–9	8th	2005
	Northeast	23–9	1st	Never
Stony Brook	America East	22–9	1st	Never
	Sun Belt	20–12	2nd	2004
Weber State	Big Sky	20–10	3rd	2009

*Jacksonville split the Atlantic Sun regular season title with Campbell, Lipscomb and Belmont, but the conference tournament was won by fifth-seeded East Tennessee State. The Dolphins earned the automatic NIT bid by advancing the furthest of the four in the Atlantic Sun tournament even though Lipscomb was the #1 seed in the tournament.
The entire 32-team field was announced on March 14, 2010, on The NIT Selection Show at 9 pm ET on ESPNU.

Bracket

''Played on the home court of the higher-seeded team ''

NIT Final Four

''Played at Madison Square Garden in New York City''