The 2019 National Invitation Tournament (NIT) 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.

Notes

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 bidCampbellBig South 20–12 1st HarvardIvy League 18–11 3rd 2018HofstraColonial 27–7 6th 2016LipscombASUN 25–7 2nd 2006Loyola–ChicagoMissouri Valley 20–13 5th1980Norfolk StateMEAC 21–13 2nd 2013Saint Francis (PA)Northeast 18–14 4th 1958Sam Houston StateSouthland 21–11 1st South Dakota StateSummit 24–8 2nd 2015Wright StateHorizon 21–13 1st

At-large bids The following teams were also awarded NIT berths.

TeamConferenceOverall recordAppearanceLast bidAlabamaSEC 18–1516th2017ArkansasSEC 17–154th2014ButlerBig East 16–169th2006ClemsonACC 19–1317th2017ColoradoPac-12 21–1211th2017CreightonBig East 18–1412th2016DavidsonAtlantic 10 24–98th2016DaytonAtlantic 10 21–1125th2012Furman Southern 25–72nd1991GeorgetownBig East 19–1313th2014IndianaBig Ten 17–156th2017MemphisAmerican 21–1318th2010NC StateACC 22–1112th2007NebraskaBig Ten 18–1619th2018ProvidenceBig East 18–1520th2013San DiegoWCC 21–141stNeverTCUBig 12 20–138th2017TexasBig 12 16–165th1986ToledoMAC 25–79th2014UNC GreensboroSouthern 28–63rd2017Wichita StateAmerican 19–1413th2011XavierBig East 18–158th2000

Seeds

+UNC Greensboro bracketSeedSchoolConference RecordBerth type1 UNC GreensboroSouthern28–6At-large2NC StateACC22–11At-large3GeorgetownBig East19–13At-large4DavidsonAtlantic 1024–9At-large5LipscombASUN25–7Automatic6HarvardIvy League18–11Automatic7HofstraColonial27–7Automatic8CampbellBig South20–12Automatic +Alabama bracketSeedSchoolConference RecordBerth type1 AlabamaSEC18–15At-large2TexasBig 1216–16At-large3XavierBig East18–15At-large4ColoradoPac-1221–12At-large5DaytonAtlantic 1021–11At-large6ToledoMAC25–7At-large7South Dakota StateSummit24–8Automatic8Norfolk StateMEAC21–13Automatic

+TCU bracketSeedSchoolConference RecordBerth type1 TCUBig 1220–13At-large2CreightonBig East18–14At-large3MemphisAmerican21–13At-large4NebraskaBig Ten18–16At-large5ButlerBig East16–16At-large6San DiegoWCC21–14At-large7Loyola–ChicagoMissouri Valley20–13Automatic8Sam Houston StateSouthland21–11Automatic +Indiana bracketSeedSchoolConference RecordBerth type1 IndianaBig Ten17–15At-large2ClemsonACC19–13At-large3FurmanSouthern25–7At-large4ProvidenceBig East18–15At-large5ArkansasSEC17–15At-large6Wichita StateAmerican19–14At-large7Wright StateHorizon21–13Automatic8Saint Francis (PA)Northeast18–14Automatic

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.

See also 2019 Women's National Invitation Tournament

References