In case you cared, West Virginia won. I'm sure they're celebrating in Morgantown tonight, and perhaps they should. But what good is the National Invitation Tournament in today's environment. I know that the NIT was the real National Championship back when Rice was a national football power, but it hasn't been in a long time. Not too long ago, some coaches who got one of the last at-large bids to the NCAA would pass it up to get the extra home games from the NIT and the money that comes with that. The NCAA is too big of business to make that viable anymore. Does anyone outside of the participating schools care about the NIT anymore? OR Is this too much of the Ricky Bobby mentality. ("You're either first or you're last.") Should we celebrate accomplishments on lower levels? The NCAA got rid of the third place game years ago, but we still celebrate bronze and silver medals in the Olympics. West Virginia still had to win 5 games in a row against some pretty good competition. I don't care, but that bothers me a little. Should I care?
Teams can't forgo NCAA bids anymore. The NCAA instituted a rule stating that if you're invited to the NCAA tourny, you have to go. That's why the NIT sued the NCAA tournament and consequently settled for a ton of money. and the NCAA bought the rights to the NIT for 10 years. It's probably worthless as a tournament just like lower level bowls in college football are pretty worthless. Although on a side note, West Virginia is a pretty good team and really young. They'll make some noise next year but I also fully expect their coach to have a new job next year. He's a damn good coach who runs a pretty sweet version of the princeton offense. Not to mention they were an overtime away from the final four two years ago.
I'd argue that the NIT champ is actually about the 35-45th best team, as a TON of the automatic bid conf. champs are pure crap. Central Connecticut State? Or whoever it is? The team whose best player was being hyped up by ESPN as the son of a crackwhore that was being gangbanged frequently. (I'm not kidding.)
The NIT has good teams. Kansas State or Syracuse are better than freakin Penn or TAMU CC!!!! But... No. It doesnt matter. 3 years ago when TAMU was in the NIT I thought it was a joke. A slap in the face. About as important as womens bball. The NIT is sad. Take it from someone whose team has been to it like it was special. Shyeah right.
The automatic bids from the smaller conferences is what makes the first round worth watching. Northwestern State gave us one of the best games of the tournament last year. Here's my question: Would you rather be one and done at the NCAA or win the NIT? There is no question in my mind that West Virginia is a much better team than Stanford. But would West Virginia rather have a 13th seed than their "National Championship"?
One and done is the way to go. i'd rather have my chance at taking down the big dogs than mauling the puppies.
Thats the million dollar question every year. I say you take the 13th seed and see if you cant make a run.
Yes because West Virginia's style of play is so unorthodox that they could very easily upset a bunch of teams, even as a 13th seed. They did make it pretty far in the tournament the last two years so they clearly have the coaching and ability to do it again, even if the players are different.
Yeah, I agree. Winning the NIT only looks good after it's been done. Looking forward, you always take the bid with the most opportunity.
