2019 National Invitation Tournament


The 2019 National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 32 NCAA Division I men's college basketball teams that were not selected to participate in the 2019 NCAA tournament. The tournament started on March 19, and concluded on April 4. The first three rounds were played on campus sites with the higher seeded team acting as host. The semifinals and championship game were held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Experimental rules

On February 22, 2019, the NCAA announced a set of experimental rules that were used in this edition of the NIT.
The following rules were also used in the 2018 NIT:
  • The three-point line was moved to the FIBA standard of. When the arc approaches the sideline, it changed to a line parallel to and from the sideline.
  • The free-throw lane was widened from the current college standard of 12 feet to the NBA standard of 16 feet.
  • After an offensive rebound, the shot clock was reset to 20 seconds instead of the current NCAA standard of 30.
A set of rules relating to free throws that had been used in the 2017 NIT were used again in the 2019 edition, with one modification:
  • Team foul counts, for purposes of determining bonus free throws, were reset to zero at the 10-minute mark of each half, effectively dividing the game into quarters for that purpose. This mirrored the current practice in NCAA women's basketball, which has been played in quarters since the 2015–16 season.
  • The "one-and-one" was eliminated. All bonus free throw situations resulted in two free throws for the non-fouled team.
  • Teams entered the bonus upon the fifth team foul in each 10-minute segment.
  • The team foul count was reset to zero at the start of any overtime period. Teams entered the bonus upon the fourth team foul in an overtime period.
  • In a completely new feature, the NCAA adopted the NBA's bonus rule regarding team fouls in the last 2 minutes of any period. Teams entered the bonus on the second team foul in the last 2 minutes of a 10-minute segment or overtime period, regardless of the total team foul count at that point of the period.
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Participants

Automatic qualifiers

The following teams were guaranteed berths into the 2019 NIT field by having the best regular season record in their conference but failing to win their conference tournament. Such teams were eligible to receive an at-large berth into the NCAA tournament but did not.
TeamConferenceOverall recordAppearanceLast bid
CampbellBig South20–121st
HarvardIvy League18–113rd2018
HofstraColonial27–76th2016
LipscombASUN25–72nd2006
Loyola–ChicagoMissouri Valley20–135th1980
Norfolk StateMEAC21–132nd2013
Saint Francis (PA)Northeast18–144th1958
Sam Houston StateSouthland21–111st
South Dakota StateSummit24–82nd2015
Wright StateHorizon21–131st

At-large bids

The following teams were also awarded NIT berths.
TeamConferenceOverall recordAppearanceLast bid
AlabamaSEC18–1516th2017
ArkansasSEC17–154th2014
ButlerBig East16–169th2006
ClemsonACC19–1317th2017
ColoradoPac-1221–1211th2017
CreightonBig East18–1412th2016
DavidsonAtlantic 1024–98th2016
DaytonAtlantic 1021–1125th2012
FurmanSouthern25–72nd1991
GeorgetownBig East19–1313th2014
IndianaBig Ten17–156th2017
MemphisAmerican21–1318th2010
NC StateACC22–1112th2007
NebraskaBig Ten18–1619th2018
ProvidenceBig East18–1520th2013
San DiegoWCC21–141stNever
TCUBig 1220–138th2017
TexasBig 1216–165th1986
ToledoMAC25–79th2014
UNC GreensboroSouthern28–63rd2017
Wichita StateAmerican19–1413th2011
XavierBig East18–158th2000

Seeds

SeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth type
1UNC GreensboroSouthern28–6At-large
2NC StateACC22–11At-large
3GeorgetownBig East19–13At-large
4DavidsonAtlantic 1024–9At-large
5LipscombASUN25–7Automatic
6HarvardIvy League18–11Automatic
7HofstraColonial27–7Automatic
8CampbellBig South20–12Automatic

SeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth type
1TCUBig 1220–13At-large
2CreightonBig East18–14At-large
3MemphisAmerican21–13At-large
4NebraskaBig Ten18–16At-large
5ButlerBig East16–16At-large
6San DiegoWCC21–14At-large
7Loyola–ChicagoMissouri Valley20–13Automatic
8Sam Houston StateSouthland21–11Automatic

Bracket

* Denotes overtime period

Media

ESPN, Inc. had exclusive television rights to all of the NIT Games. It telecast every game across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPN3. Westwood One had exclusive radio rights to the semifinals and the championship.