Sports Product Review

Every once in a while, instead of reviewing an actual product you can buy, we’ll write about something pertaining to the sports world in general. Since, for the next two weeks, everyone will have their eyes on the NCAA Tournament, we thought we’d re-run our editorial about the NIT. We have a suggestion that will make this “second class” tournament more fun, exciting and meaningful.

When it comes to the National Invitation Tournament, if you’re like most people, you’re saying, “who cares.” Forget that the tournament is rich in history, beginning in 1938. We’re only interested in seeing the “Big Dance” which crowns the “real” champion. But we have a suggestion to make the NIT more relevant, and, ultimately much more interesting and exciting. How? Each year, the team that wins the NIT should automatically qualify for next year’s NCAA tournament.

I can hear the nay-sayers now, who will argue that teams should have to earn the bid on this year’s merits, not last year’s, and that some of the kids who were on the NIT-winning team wouldn’t even be there to enjoy the automatic bid. They’ll fear we may let in a team that doesn’t belong to the hallowed field of 65. Well, through history, 13 teams that have been in the NIT Final Four have gone on to next year's NCAA Final Four. And about that hallowed field...excuse me but University of Maryland-Baltimore and Texas-Arlington are in this year's Big Dance. Compare those names to last year’s NIT Final Four: West Virginia, Air Force, Mississippi State, and Clemson. Ironically, last year’s winner, (and you had no idea, did you?), West Virginia, got in this year’s tourney anyway as a 7 seed, so this suggestion would have only added spice to last season’s tournament, but done nothing to detract from the present NCAA field. And if a team did happen to win the NIT one year then flop the next? I’d still have no problem with them coming in as a 16 seed if it means that NIT coverage might not be relegated to the back page of the sports section and the further back recesses of our minds. Imagine the gift the outgoing seniors who won the NIT would feel they’ve given to the university. Imagine the passion with which the underclassmen would play. Think of the celebration on the court after the championship, knowing a berth to next year’s big dance was locked. It’s only one bid. But it might add considerable luster to a venerable tournament that needs a boost.

Source: NIT