3rd tournament making selections on Sunday too..
INDIANAPOLIS - There will be a bit more selecting done this Selection Sunday than there has been in the past. The reason is the College Basketball Invitational, a new postseason tournament that will compete with the NIT for teams shut out of the NCAA tournament.
A creation of the Gazelle Group, which produces events such as the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer, the CBI will feature 16 teams split among and seeded in four regions. All the games, which begin Tuesday, will be played on the campuses of the higher-seeded teams. Its champion will be determined in a best-of-three series scheduled for March 31, April 2 and April 4.
"It has been very, very good. They've been very interested," Dan Loney, the director of communications for Gazelle, said when asked how schools have responded to the CBI.
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<!-- END rail -->"They like the idea of having a third tournament. You have had schools on the outside looking in. Now they have this third option."
One school that could have that option is Ohio State, whose chances for an NCAA tournament bid were left hanging after its opening-round loss to Michigan State in the Big Ten tournament.
"I haven't even thought about it," Buckeyes coach Thad Matta said when asked if he was interested in the CBI. "I don't know enough about [it], to be quite honest with you. They've sent me e-mails. But I refused to read them because I want to go to the NCAA tournament."
The Big Ten has no official stance on the CBI, and an e-mail request for a comment on it from the NCAA, which also owns the NIT, was not answered. But clearly this new event is a threat to the NIT, which began in 1938 and was taken over by the NCAA in 2005.
It is not inconceivable — in fact, it is very possible — that teams left out of the NCAA field will receive offers from both the NIT and CBI.
"It will be like having invitations to two parties on Saturday night," Loney said of that prospect, echoing a line Gazelle President Rick Giles often uses.
Those schools will not have much time to make up their minds. Both the NIT and CBI plan to have their fields set not long after the NCAA's is revealed. Which means there will be one more layer of selecting on Selection Sunday.
INDIANAPOLIS - There will be a bit more selecting done this Selection Sunday than there has been in the past. The reason is the College Basketball Invitational, a new postseason tournament that will compete with the NIT for teams shut out of the NCAA tournament.
A creation of the Gazelle Group, which produces events such as the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer, the CBI will feature 16 teams split among and seeded in four regions. All the games, which begin Tuesday, will be played on the campuses of the higher-seeded teams. Its champion will be determined in a best-of-three series scheduled for March 31, April 2 and April 4.
"It has been very, very good. They've been very interested," Dan Loney, the director of communications for Gazelle, said when asked how schools have responded to the CBI.
<!--START SECTION TOP HEADLINES-->
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<!-- END rail -->"They like the idea of having a third tournament. You have had schools on the outside looking in. Now they have this third option."
One school that could have that option is Ohio State, whose chances for an NCAA tournament bid were left hanging after its opening-round loss to Michigan State in the Big Ten tournament.
"I haven't even thought about it," Buckeyes coach Thad Matta said when asked if he was interested in the CBI. "I don't know enough about [it], to be quite honest with you. They've sent me e-mails. But I refused to read them because I want to go to the NCAA tournament."
The Big Ten has no official stance on the CBI, and an e-mail request for a comment on it from the NCAA, which also owns the NIT, was not answered. But clearly this new event is a threat to the NIT, which began in 1938 and was taken over by the NCAA in 2005.
It is not inconceivable — in fact, it is very possible — that teams left out of the NCAA field will receive offers from both the NIT and CBI.
"It will be like having invitations to two parties on Saturday night," Loney said of that prospect, echoing a line Gazelle President Rick Giles often uses.
Those schools will not have much time to make up their minds. Both the NIT and CBI plan to have their fields set not long after the NCAA's is revealed. Which means there will be one more layer of selecting on Selection Sunday.
