Ay-Ziggy-Zoomba.com

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3110361

Thoughts? I think it's a great idea. A lot of quality teams lost out on the NIT last year after the NCAA took it over reduced the field and changed the selection process.

I love the 3-game final. Can't complain about more March basketball.

This a great opportunity for us to play in the post season if we don't make to the NCAA's or the NIT. I know that everyone is hoping we have a good year, as am I. But if we don't get in or get snubbed this is an opportunity for us to put BG on the map. I like it.

I like it as well, we'll have to see how it goes. I don't like the idea of sub-.500 teams being able to play in it - although the article said it would probably be unlikely.

I would think we would have to win 20+ to get an invite to this. With the way the NIT is now set up you can have an RPI any where from 60-75 and not make the field. With only 16 teams being invited it's really just putting the same number of teams the NIT used to have plus a few.

As a BG fan, I like it. I'll watch whenever BG plays. But just like the real NIT, is anybody going to care if it's not THEIR favorite team playing?

I don't think I've ever watched an NIT tourney game that didn't involve BG.

hammb wrote:As a BG fan, I like it. I'll watch whenever BG plays. But just like the real NIT, is anybody going to care if it's not THEIR favorite team playing?

I don't think I've ever watched an NIT tourney game that didn't involve BG.

I love college hoops, by far my favorite sport to watch. I really like watching the NIT. Usually in the later rounds there are 8 teams that are better than 15 of the ones in the NCAA tourny and it makes for great games. With the way the NIT narrowed down it's field I think it will produce the same thing. 16 solid mid-major programs that would make the NIT but got bumped because of the NIT rule saying conference winners who don't receive their conferences automatic bid will be playing. Anytime you can get an 18 team win out of the MVC playing a 19 win A10 team or a 20 win Atlantic Sun playing a 20 MAC team it makes for great hoops.

Plus another tournament you can fill brackets out for and gamble on .

From Andy Katz blog on ESPN:

More teams to get postseason playposted: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 | Print Entry

If the College Basketball Invitational had existed last March, then Washington may not have been so sullen after watching in disbelief the postseason NIT selection show on ESPNU.

As the Huskies' players sat in their locker room waiting for practice, they were stunned to learn that the NIT had left them out of the 32-team field.

The season was over. So, naturally, there was no reason to practice.

If the same thing happened this March, then Washington would have an alternative.

Earlier Wednesday, the Gazelle Group announced a plan that was hatched last March after seeing the NIT field that omitted Washington, Akron (after the Zips lost to Miami of Ohio in a buzzer beater in the MAC tournament), Connecticut and St. Louis, among many others.

Rick Giles runs the Gazelle Group and organizes tournaments like the 2K Hoops Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer, the CBE Classic and the Legends Classic. He contacted 16 schools that weren't in the NCAA or NIT -- Washington, Hawaii, Houston, Santa Clara, LSU, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kent State, Missouri, St. Louis, Iowa, Northern Iowa, Connecticut, St. Joseph's, Dayton and Akron -- and asked if they would have liked to be in an alternative tournament. He said 15 of the 16 said yes without a discussion. He said Saint Joe's was the only school that wanted to think about the concept.

So, the plan was hatched where an alternative tournament would be produced with each game on a campus site based on seeds, leaning toward geography concerns. The finals would then be a best two-of-three with a home-away-home format.

The College Basketball Invitational will be a direct competitor of the postseason NIT, which is run and operated by the NCAA now, but Giles said he would still take these type of quality teams even if they wanted to wait to see if the NIT selected them first, although teams can decline NIT bids if they want. The NIT final four is in New York. This final would be on a campus and be a unique best-of-three.

"Last year shows there are enough teams," Giles said of increasing the postseason. He said coaches at the Final Four were discussing the need for expanding the postseason.

"The coaches weren't happy when the NIT went from 40 to 32," Giles said. "The lure of hosting a two-out-of-three series might be more alluring than going to New York. Teams 66 through 97 may choose the NIT, and if they do that we're still fine with that. If those [types] of teams are on the list this year, we'd be fine. Look at those matchups [like Missouri vs. St. Louis, Dayton vs. Akron, Connecticut vs. St. Joseph's]. Those would be interesting matchups and would make for good competitive games."

Giles said he's working on securing a television contract, too.