2016 National Invitation Tournament


The 2016 National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 32 NCAA Division I teams that were not selected to participate in the 2016 NCAA tournament. The annual tournament was 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 15 and ended on Thursday, March 31. An experimental rule allowing players six personal fouls instead of five was approved for use in all national postseason tournaments except for the NCAA Tournament. The NIT Selection Show aired at 8:30 PM EDT on Sunday, March 13, 2016, on ESPNU. George Washington were the champions over Valparaiso 76–60. The Colonials victory was their first-ever NIT title.

Participants

Automatic qualifiers

The following 15 teams earned automatic berths into the 2016 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
AkronMAC26–84th2012
BelmontOhio Valley20–113rd2014
BucknellPatriot17–133rd2015
High PointBig South21–102nd2014
HofstraCAA24–95th2007
IPFWSummit24–91stNever
MonmouthMAAC27–71stNever
New Mexico StateWAC23–105th2000
North FloridaAtlantic Sun22–111stNever
Saint Mary'sWCC27–55th2015
San Diego StateMountain West25–96th2009
Texas SouthernSWAC18–142nd2011
UABC-USA26–612th2010
ValparaisoHorizon26–63rd2012
WagnerNEC22–103rd2002

At-large bids

The following 17 teams were also awarded NIT berths.
TeamConferenceRecordAppearanceLast bid
AlabamaSEC18–1414th2015
BYUWest Coast23–1012th2013
CreightonBig East18–1411th2011
DavidsonAtlantic 1020–127th2014
FloridaSEC19–1410th2009
Florida StateACC19–1310th2014
George WashingtonAtlantic 1023–106th2015
GeorgiaSEC19–1313th2014
Georgia TechACC19–148th2003
HoustonAmerican22–910th2006
Long Beach StateBig West20–148th2013
Ohio StateBig Ten20–139th2008
PrincetonIvy22–66th2002
South CarolinaSEC24–812th2009
St. BonaventureAtlantic 1022–816th2002
Virginia TechACC19–1413th2011
WashingtonPac-1218–148th2013

Seeds

The first four teams left out of the NCAA tournament were the top seeds in the four regions, as in last year's tournament. They were St. Bonaventure, South Carolina, Monmouth and Valparaiso.

Schedule

The NIT began on Tuesday March 15. The first three rounds were played on campus sites. The Final Four began on Tuesday, March 29 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and ended there with the championship game on Thursday, March 31.

Bracket

^Florida was not able to host home games at the O'Connell Center due to arena renovations.
* Denotes overtime period

Media

had exclusive television rights to all NIT games. It will telecast every game across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPN3. Since 2011, Westwood One had exclusive radio rights to the semifinals and championship. In 2016 Scott Graham and Kelly Tripucka provided the call.