NIT Announces New Procedures and Committee Additions for 2025

INDIANAPOLIS — The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) Board of Managers has revealed exciting changes to the qualification processes for the upcoming 2025 tournament. Among the notable updates, they declared that 16 teams will receive bids as “exempt” teams, alongside others that could qualify automatically as regular-season conference champions.

The new rules dictate that the top two teams not selected for the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship from both the Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference will earn exempt bids to the NIT. Additionally, the highest team not selected from the top 12 conferences, based on the Ken Pomeroy Rating, will also snag an exempt bid.

To determine which teams are exempt, the NIT will take into account several rankings, including the ESPN Basketball Power Index (BPI), Kevin Pauga Index (KPI), NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET), Ken Pomeroy Rating (KenPom), Strength of Record (SOR), Torvik ranking, and Wins Above Bubble (WAB). Teams obtaining exempt bids are guaranteed the chance to host a first-round game.

Regular-season champions that don’t reach the NCAA Championship can secure an automatic bid to the NIT, provided their team has an average of 125 or better across the aforementioned rankings.

The NIT Board also welcomed new committee members, adding former head coaches Tubby Smith and Jeff Jones. Smith, over 31 seasons, recorded 642-370 and led teams to many NCAA and NIT appearances. Jones accumulated a 560-418 record and achieved success in the NIT as well.

In addition to approving committee members, the NIT Board introduced an experimental rule allowing coaches to appeal out-of-bounds calls during the last two minutes of games. The process requires coaches to have timeouts remaining and imposes penalties if the appeal fails.

Mark your calendars, as the complete bracket and pairings for the 2025 NIT will be unveiled on Sunday, March 16, with matches commencing on Tuesday, March 18. The coveted semifinals and championship will return to the historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, scheduled for April 1 and April 3, respectively. All games will be available for viewing across ESPN platforms. For further details, fans can visit the official NIT website.