2012 National Invitation Tournament


The 2012 National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 32 NCAA Division I teams that were not selected to participate in the 2012 NCAA tournament. The annual tournament began on March 13 on campus sites and ended on March 29 at Madison Square Garden. Stanford defeated Minnesota in the final game, by a score of 75–51 to become NIT champions for second time.

Participants

Automatic qualifiers

The following teams were automatic qualifiers for the 2012 NIT field by virtue of winning their conferences' regular season championship but failing to win their conference tournament. These teams also did not receive an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament.
TeamConferenceRecordAppearanceLast bid
AkronMAC22–115th2008
BucknellPatriot League24–91stNever
DrexelColonial27–67th2007
Middle TennesseeSun Belt25–63rd1988
NevadaWAC26–65th2010
Oral RobertsSummit27–68th2005
Savannah StateMEAC21–111stNever
Stony BrookAmerica East22–92nd2010
Texas–ArlingtonSouthland24–82nd1981
ValparaisoHorizon22–112nd2003

Bracket

Played on the home court of the higher-seeded team except #7 seed Iowa hosts #2 seed Dayton since Dayton is the host of the NCAA First Four and cannot host a first-round NIT game.

Semifinals and final

Played at Madison Square Garden in New York City on March 27 and March 29