NIT Changes

[CajunSID]

i cant read the article but let me make a SWAG, scientific wild ass guess. its simple, money. the ncaa tournament makes its money from tv revenue. the NIT makes its money from ticket sales, butts in seats if you will. look at attendance, lets use louisiana and mississippi state as examples. ul has about a 2500-3500 attendance record on average for many years while mississippi state who is a middle of the road sec program at best, averages about 7000 per game. more tickets sales means a bigger profit for the NIT. when schools that have a smaller avg. attendance host and advance in the tournament, the NIT will make less money. the NIT now wants to make its money in the first 2 rounds so that if schools that have a lower attendance and that dont travel well advance, they made their money in the early part of the tourney. i dont see it as a hard slap in the face of the g5 as some might. you have to understand that the NIT has been on shaky ground and has almost folded several times in the past 40 plus years because of low ticket sales from hosting schools. its my understanding that the ncaa took over the tournament. the NIT back in the day was a private enterprise and they werent making much money with hosting schools that had 1500-2500 in attendance. also, the reason that louisiana hosted back in the 80's was because we packed blackham with 8000-9000 people. louisiana hosted several games just based on ticket sales when the other school should have hosted based on record. santa clara was ____ed having to come to lafayette when they should have hosted based on record. its all about making money. the p5 schools sell more tickets. i'm not saying that i like the change, i just understand why the change was made.

As the ncaa tournament expanded, the nit lost relevancy. You make a great point about ticket sales. But the NIT is on life support and it doesn’t matter how many tickets they sell. Because, pretty soon, if you aren’t in the dance, even the SEC team probably draws 2,000 for their 10-win season that creates apathy.

[Cajunchuck]

Nothing creates excitement more than a power conference team with a losing record in post season play. The only time I will watch the NIT anyway is if UL is in it, otherwise I don't really have any interest.

[RedTails]

I don't understand why they would do this; NIT is owned and ran by the NCAA. Can't find any info on who the current NIT board of managers are though which could explain it.

[ZoomZoom]

Once FB breaks away, MBB will be next, along with WBB. Title IX.