2025 National Invitation Tournament

The 2025 National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of thirty-two NCAA Division I men's college basketball teams not selected to participate in the 2025 NCAA tournament. The tournament commenced on March 18th and concluded on April 3rd. The first three rounds were played on campus sites, with the semifinal and final rounds played at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Six programs made their debut in the NIT: Cal State Northridge, Jacksonville State, North Alabama, Northern Colorado, Samford, and UC Riverside.
The University of Tennessee–Chattanooga Mocs defeated the University of California–Irvine Anteaters 85–84 in overtime to claim the championship. The All-Tournament Team was composed of Trey Bonham, Justin Hohn, Honor Huff, Devin Tillis and Atin Wright ; Bonham was also selected Most Outstanding Player.

Participants

Teams and pairings for the 2025 NIT were released by the NIT Committee on March 16, 2025. Thirty-two teams qualified for the NIT, including exempt qualifiers, automatic qualifiers, and at-large selections. In 2024, the Seton Hall Pirates won the NIT championship.
Non-NCAA tournament teams from the Big East, Big Ten and Big 12 conferences were contractually prohibited from playing in any other postseason tournament, including the NIT, if they declined an invitation or removed themselves from consideration for a bid to the College Basketball Crown.

Exempt qualifiers

For the 2025 NIT, exempt bids were extended to two teams from the Atlantic Coast and Southeastern conferences, plus one team each from the top twelve conferences as rated by the Pomeroy College Basketball Ratings on March 16, 2025. The twelve conferences that earned exempt bids based on their KenPom ratings were

Whether the twelve exempt-bid conferences excluded or included the ACC and SEC is unclear. Multiple sources indicated that there would be sixteen exempt bids extended. This would be possible only if four exempt bids were extended collectively to the ACC and SEC, and twelve other exempt bids were extended. Nevertheless, two days before NIT selections were to be made, a tweet from the NIT's account included a graphic purporting to show the twelve conferences that were then leading in the KenPom ratings, and those twelve conferences included the ACC and SEC. This would result in only fourteen exempt bids if the ACC and SEC could not receive a third exempt bid by being in the top twelve conferences. A CBS Sports article in which the tweet was embedded maintained there would be sixteen exempt bids. The two conferences listed above that were excluded from the graphic were the Ivy and the WAC. Because the tweet is the only source indicating the ACC and SEC were taken into account when ranking the top twelve conferences, it may have been erroneous. Had the SEC been eligible for a third exempt bid, it would not have been able to receive it, as only two of its members failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament.
Further, it appears that Utah Valley, the team entitled to the WAC's exempt bid, could not host due to scheduling issues with their arena, which would mean the WAC did earn an exempt bid. However, local media reporting Utah Valley's NIT bid merely speculated and did not express certainty regarding why they were playing on the road. The Utah Valley athletics website offered no explanation for the team opening the NIT away from home. Without a definitive statement from the NCAA, the status of teams participating in the tournament as either exempt or at large remains unclear. If the WAC did not have an exempt bid, Utah Valley earned an automatic bid, because they were the WAC regular-season champion, did not win the conference tournament, and had a KNIT score better than 125.
The teams accepting exempt bids are shown below. No schools from the Big East, Big Ten, Ivy, or SEC accepted invitations, creating five additional at-large berths.
The final KNIT, ESPN Basketball Power Index, Ken Pomeroy Rating, Kevin Pauga Index, NCAA Evaluation Tool, Strength of Record ranking, and Wins Above Bubble scores of non-NCAA tournament teams from conferences that earned exempt bids through the close of play on March 16, 2025 are summarized in the tables below. Teams in bold accepted a bid; teams in italics were extended an automatic bid but rejected it. Some Big East, Big Ten, and Big 12 teams were contractually obligated to decline.

Team	BTR	BPI	KPR	KPI	NET	SOR	WAB	KNIT
SMU	47	45	47	62	46	51	57	51
Wake Forest	70	62	71	59	69	44	48	60
Pittsburgh	72	50	61	92	61	79	85	71
Stanford	75	88	82	76	81	70	72	78
Florida State	93	86	89	123	90	93	111	98
Georgia Tech	90	94	94	122	109	94	112	102
Virginia	96	100	104	124	110	100	117	107
Notre Dame	97	89	96	146	103	117	138	112
Syracuse	107	97	117	147	133	123	152	125
California	121	104	112	154	125	140	158	131
NC State	115	93	125	179	132	148	177	138
Virginia Tech	144	122	161	166	167	147	182	156
Boston College	172	161	184	203	202	166	196	183
Miami	185	119	192	251	225	188	269	204

Team	BTR	BPI	KPR	KPI	NET	SOR	WAB	KNIT
LSU	84	74	88	105	89	85	87	87
South Carolina	76	79	69	106	87	109	119	92

Team	BTR	BPI	KPR	KPI	NET	SOR	WAB	KNIT
North Texas	73	80	72	73	65	63	66	70
UAB	101	99	103	100	106	115	124	107
Florida Atlantic	111	102	115	139	111	138	157	125
Wichita State	140	120	135	140	134	129	145	135
Tulane	138	127	138	174	145	154	174	150
Temple	157	142	171	181	164	165	191	167
East Carolina	182	159	176	162	176	156	178	170
South Florida	201	147	195	207	189	188	245	196
UTSA	181	186	191	227	201	188	250	203
Rice	179	194	189	281	204	188	280	216
Tulsa	240	235	268	262	271	188	287	250
Charlotte	262	219	257	276	267	188	319	255

Team	BTR	BPI	KPR	KPI	NET	SOR	WAB	KNIT
George Mason	71	69	78	47	68	53	55	63
Dayton	78	72	74	51	67	58	62	66
Saint Joseph's	82	71	79	64	76	92	106	81
St. Bonaventure	92	110	102	84	97	87	88	94
Loyola Chicago	98	101	108	78	107	95	101	98
Saint Louis	108	108	106	85	101	121	131	109
George Washington	116	116	113	119	124	126	134	121
Rhode Island	160	135	150	127	152	139	154	145
Davidson	142	130	148	157	153	163	181	153
Duquesne	123	118	132	145	149	188	251	158
La Salle	209	165	222	173	214	188	230	200
UMass	212	192	214	204	221	188	267	214
Fordham	216	213	229	209	239	188	278	225
Richmond	224	223	238	221	253	188	296	235

Team	BTR	BPI	KPR	KPI	NET	SOR	WAB	KNIT
UC Irvine	80	95	66	41	62	57	51	65
Cal State Northridge	128	133	107	117	104	120	108	117
UC Riverside	151	200	145	98	142	119	105	137
UC Santa Barbara	147	157	147	160	140	170	156	154
Cal Poly	178	236	181	177	180	188	225	195
Hawaii	231	256	224	200	223	188	216	220
UC Davis	244	259	246	205	237	188	220	228
Cal State Bakersfield	255	254	239	235	244	188	273	241
Long Beach State	309	324	303	324	326	188	336	301
Cal State Fullerton	354	355	351	329	348	188	341	324

Team	BTR	BPI	KPR	KPI	NET	SOR	WAB	KNIT
Middle Tennessee	120	141	119	72	105	111	92	109
Jacksonville State	132	153	123	90	122	135	115	124
Louisiana Tech	134	140	126	103	126	150	129	130
Kennesaw State	124	185	130	102	137	158	141	140
New Mexico State	105	164	131	131	144	179	167	146
UTEP	143	196	158	128	157	175	165	160
Western Kentucky	159	198	159	132	159	174	163	163
Sam Houston	155	205	175	178	178	188	233	187
FIU	266	292	254	270	260	188	330	266

Team	BTR	BPI	KPR	KPI	NET	SOR	WAB	KNIT
Bradley	99	92	95	56	80	73	68	80
Northern Iowa	117	113	101	80	93	141	136	112
Belmont	130	162	129	93	129	116	116	125
Illinois State	131	124	140	121	121	155	162	136
Murray State	162	121	142	138	146	188	210	158
UIC	191	154	174	130	154	153	166	160
Southern Illinois	180	207	193	186	195	188	255	201
Indiana State	203	182	201	210	205	188	244	205
Valparaiso	219	203	212	199	206	188	256	212
Missouri State	207	237	245	269	245	188	328	246
Evansville	261	269	262	233	257	188	299	253

Team	BTR	BPI	KPR	KPI	NET	SOR	WAB	KNIT
Boise State	50	48	50	50	44	55	52	50
UNLV	89	96	92	97	98	103	110	98
Nevada	88	78	80	126	79	128	128	101
San Jose State	152	181	165	194	175	179	203	178
Wyoming	189	199	185	217	197	188	212	198
Fresno State	258	274	256	287	278	188	317	265
Air Force	289	304	310	312	323	188	340	295

Team	BTR	BPI	KPR	KPI	NET	SOR	WAB	KNIT
San Francisco	61	75	65	58	64	54	54	62
Santa Clara	51	70	57	61	57	88	81	66
Oregon State	91	98	85	113	85	108	94	96
Washington State	106	114	124	116	112	106	107	112
Loyola Marymount	148	169	155	153	162	161	137	155
Pepperdine	198	238	216	254	227	188	243	223
Portland	251	310	269	265	288	188	249	260
Pacific	279	316	283	309	295	188	309	283
San Diego	292	322	296	341	324	188	344	301

All exempt qualifiers were given the opportunity to host first-round games.