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 [Division I men's basketball tournament|2017 NCAA tournament]. The annual tournament was played on campus sites in the first three rounds, 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:
  • Team fouls were reset to zero at the end of every 10-minute segment of each half. Similar to women's college basketball, the game was split into quarters for purposes of team fouls, but without a period break.
  • There were no "one-and-one" foul shots. Instead, starting with the fifth total foul in each 10-minute segment, non-shooting fouls by the defensive team resulted in two free throws, with the only exception being administrative technical fouls. This mirrored foul counting in NCAA women's basketball, which has been played in quarters since the 2015–16 season.
  • In a feature unique in the college game, but similar to that used by the NBA, overtime was considered a separate period for purposes of accrued team fouls. The team foul limit was three per overtime period, with all non-shooting team fouls thereafter by the defense resulting in two free throws.
  • The shot clock was reset to 20 seconds when the ball was inbounded in the frontcourt following a foul.

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.
TeamConferenceRecordAppearanceLast bid
BelmontOhio Valley26–64th2016
Illinois StateMissouri Valley27–614th2015
MonmouthMetro Atlantic27–62nd2016
OaklandHorizon24–81stNever
South DakotaSummit22–111stNever
UNC GreensboroSouthern25–92nd2002
UT ArlingtonSun Belt25–83rd2012
AkronMAC26–87th2016
UC IrvineBig West21–146th2014
Cal State BakersfieldWAC22–91stNever

At-large bids

The following 22 teams were also awarded NIT berths.
TeamConferenceRecordAppearanceLast bid
AlabamaSEC19–1415th2016
Boise StateMtn West19–115th2004
BYUWCC22–1113th2016
CaliforniaPac-1221–129th2014
ClemsonACC17–1516th2014
College of CharlestonCAA25–95th2011
ColoradoPac-1219–149th2011
Colorado StateMtn West23–119th2015
Fresno StateMtn West20–1210th2007
GeorgiaSEC19–1414th2016
Georgia TechACC17–159th2016
HoustonAmerican21–1011th2016
IllinoisBig Ten18–147th2015
Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team|Indiana]Big Ten18–155th2005
IowaBig Ten18–148th2013
Ole MissSEC20–1312th2012
RichmondAtlantic 1020–129th2015
SyracuseACC18–1413th2008
TCUBig 1219–157th2005
UCF Knights men's basketball team|UCF]American20–112nd2012
UtahPac-1220–1113th2014
ValparaisoHorizon24–84th2016

Seeds

SeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth type
1SyracuseACC18–14At-large
2GeorgiaSEC19–14At-large
3IndianaBig Ten18–15At-large
4MonmouthMAAC27–6Automatic
5Ole MissSEC20–13At-large
6Georgia TechACC17–15At-large
7BelmontOVC22–6Automatic
8UNC GreensboroSoCon25–9Automatic

SeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth type
1Illinois StateMissouri Valley27–6Automatic
2IllinoisBig Ten18–14At-large
3UtahPac-1220–11At-large
4UCFAmerican21–11At-large
5ColoradoPac-1219–14At-large
6Boise StateMtn West19–11At-large
7ValparaisoHorizon24–8At-large
8UC IrvineBig West21–14Automatic

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

^ Indiana Athletic Director Fred Glass declined to host a home game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall citing concern it would "devalue" the Hoosiers' home court.
† Game played at Texas Southern's Health and Physical Education Arena due to renovations at Hofheinz Pavilion.
^ Game played at UCF due to prior scheduled event at the State Farm Center.

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.