2015 National Invitation Tournament


The 2015 National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 32 NCAA Division I teams that were not selected to participate in the 2015 NCAA tournament. The annual tournament is being played on campus sites for the first three rounds, with the Final Four and championship game being held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The tournament began on Tuesday, March 17 and ended on Thursday, April 2. On February 6, the NCAA announced the 2015 NIT will use a 30-second shot clock and a restricted-area arc as experimental rules for the 2015 tournament. On March 4, the NCAA announced teams that are marked as the first four teams left out of the 2015 NCAA tournament field will be the top-seeded teams in the 2015 NIT.

Participants

Automatic qualifiers

The following teams earned automatic berths into the 2015 NIT field by virtue of having won their respective conference's regular season championship but failing to win their conference tournaments or receive an at-large NCAA bid.
TeamConferenceRecordAppearanceLast bid
BucknellPatriot19–142nd2012
Central MichiganMid-American23–82nd1979
Charleston SouthernBig South19–112nd2013
IonaMAAC26–86th2014
Louisiana TechC-USA25–89th2014
MontanaBig Sky20–124th1995
Murray StateOhio Valley27–58th2011
North Carolina CentralMEAC25–71stNever
South Dakota StateSummit23–101stNever
St. Francis BrooklynNortheast23–114th1963
UC DavisBig West25–61stNever
William & MaryColonial20–123rd2010

At-large bids

The following 20 teams were also awarded NIT berths.
TeamConferenceRecordAppearanceLast bid
[2014–15 2014–15 Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball team|Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball team|Alabama]SEC18–1413th2013
Arizona StatePac-1217–1513th2013
[2014–15 2014–15 Colorado State Rams men's basketball team|Colorado State Rams men's basketball team|Colorado State]Mountain West27–68th2011
George WashingtonAtlantic 1021–125th2004
Green BayHorizon24–84th2014
[2014–15 2014–15 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team|Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team|Illinois]Big Ten19–136th2014
Illinois StateMissouri Valley21–1213th2012
Miami (FL)ACC21–1211th2012
[2014–15 2014–15 Old Dominion Monarchs men's basketball team|Old Dominion Monarchs men's basketball team|Old Dominion]C-USA24–711th2006
PittsburghACC19–149th2001
Rhode IslandAtlantic 1022–915th2010
[2014–15 2014–15 Richmond Spiders men's basketball team|Richmond Spiders men's basketball team|Richmond]Atlantic 1019–138th2008
Saint Mary'sWest Coast21–94th2014
StanfordPac-1219–138th2013
[2014–15 2014–15 Temple Owls men's basketball team|Temple Owls men's basketball team|Temple]American23–1017th2006
Texas A&MSEC20–117th2005
TulsaAmerican22–1010th2010
UConnAmerican20–1413th2010
UTEPC-USA22–1010th2011
VanderbiltSEC19–1312th2006

Schedule

  • Game times in Eastern Time. #Rankings denote tournament seeding.

Bracket

The following teams were listed as the "First Four Out" of the NCAA tournament and received #1 seeds: Old Dominion, Richmond, Temple, Colorado State.
#3 Illinois played at #6 Alabama due to State Farm Center renovations.
* Denotes overtime period

Media

ESPN, Inc. has exclusive television rights to all NIT games. It will telecast every game across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3. Since 2011, Westwood One has held exclusive radio rights to the semifinals and championship. In 2015, Dave Ryan and Kelly Tripucka called these games for Westwood One.