Gavitt: NIT modifies made to fight new tourney

Jeff Borzello, ESPN Personnel WriterNov 1, 2023, 03:37 PM ET

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• Basketball recruiting expert.
• Joined ESPN in 2014.
• Graduate of University of Delaware.The recent modifications to the postseason NIT were made in direct reaction to a new postseason tournament anticipated to start as early as 2025, leaving the future of the 85-year-old competition at danger.”The really practicality of the occasion might be in jeopardy,

  “NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said Wednesday.Last week, the NIT board of supervisors announced that regular-season champs who do not win their conference competitions and are not picked for the NCAA tournament will not get an automatic quote to the NIT. Instead, the NIT will guarantee quotes for two groups from each of the six power conferences along with 2 spots for the top two teams in the NET rankings that were not selected for the NCAA tournament.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated The modifications were met criticism from mid-major conference commissioners and head coaches.Gavitt said Wednesday the modifications were essential

  in order to compete with the new postseason competition in the works.”The NIT has a brand-new, reliable and impending obstacle in the competitive postseason space. Every indicator is that a new postseason occasion is planned to begin in 2025,”Gavitt said.”The event is efficient, envisioned and funded with a competitive broadcast element and place.”As an outcome of all that, we believe we required to change and evolve the NIT to take on the very best available teams and conferences, provided brand-new postseason opportunities that are presented to them. The changes are a preemptive effort to keep the NIT viable long-lasting, honestly.”Gavitt was describing a new competition featuring the top 16 groups from the Big East, Big 10 and Huge 12 that didn’t make the NCAA tournament. The Messenger reported in September that Fox Sports lags the

  event, which would be played at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. “It’s really been a luxury that we’ve been running the tournament in a low competitive environment,”Gavitt said.” Which scenario is now changing.” “I can inform you unquestionably, this occasion was going to happen

  in 2024,”he added.” This is not an imagined obstacle.”Gavitt likewise dealt with issues that the changes to the NIT were a precursor to the NCAA competition making similar modifications– more power-conference groups, fewer mid-majors– saying those worries were not “justified.” “The occasions are handled by very various groups, with really various truths, in a competitive market,”Gavitt stated.”There should not be any connection that’s drawn. In no time in the quick time the males’s basketball committee has actually gone over expansion of the NCAA competition field, has anything even from another location near this subject or by doing this of thinking about how to run a tournament been considered. “We have automated qualifiers from 32 conferences currently; in the NCAA championship, we have 36 at-large areas. Ought to the tournament expand, the thought would be there would be more at-large chances for all 32 conferences.”