The 2025 National Invitation Tournament (NIT) was a single-elimination tournament of thirty-two NCAA Division I men's college basketball teams not selected to participate in the 2025 NCAA tournament. The tournament commenced on March 18th and concluded on April 3rd. The first three rounds were played on campus sites, with the semifinal and final rounds played at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Six programs made their debut in the NIT: Cal State Northridge, Jacksonville State, North Alabama, Northern Colorado, Samford, and UC Riverside.
The University of TennesseeâÂÂChattanooga Mocs defeated the University of CaliforniaâÂÂIrvine Anteaters 85âÂÂ84 in overtime to claim the championship. The All-Tournament Team was composed of Trey Bonham (Chattanooga), Justin Hohn (UC Irvine), Honor Huff (Chattanooga), Devin Tillis (UC Irvine) and Atin Wright (North Texas); Bonham was also selected Most Outstanding Player.
Teams and pairings for the 2025 NIT were released by the NIT Committee on March 16, 2025. Thirty-two teams qualified for the NIT, including exempt qualifiers, automatic qualifiers, and at-large selections. In 2024, the Seton Hall Pirates won the NIT championship.
Non-NCAA tournament teams from the Big East, Big Ten and Big 12 conferences were contractually prohibited from playing in any other postseason tournament, including the NIT, if they declined an invitation or removed themselves from consideration for a bid to the College Basketball Crown.
For the 2025 NIT, exempt bids were extended to two teams from the Atlantic Coast (ACC) and Southeastern (SEC) conferences, plus one team each from the top twelve conferences (potentially excluding the ACC and SEC) as rated by the Pomeroy College Basketball Ratings (KenPom) on March 16, 2025. The twelve conferences that earned exempt bids based on their KenPom ratings were
Whether the twelve exempt-bid conferences excluded or included the ACC and SEC is unclear. Multiple sources indicated that there would be sixteen exempt bids extended. This would be possible only if four exempt bids were extended collectively to the ACC and SEC, and twelve other exempt bids were extended. Nevertheless, two days before NIT selections were to be made, a tweet from the NIT's account included a graphic purporting to show the twelve conferences that were then leading in the KenPom ratings, and those twelve conferences included the ACC and SEC. This would result in only fourteen exempt bids if the ACC and SEC could not receive a third exempt bid by being in the top twelve conferences. A CBS Sports article in which the tweet was embedded maintained there would be sixteen exempt bids. The two conferences listed above that were excluded from the graphic were the Ivy and the WAC. Because the tweet is the only source indicating the ACC and SEC were taken into account when ranking the top twelve conferences, it may have been erroneous. Had the SEC been eligible for a third exempt bid, it would not have been able to receive it, as only two of its members failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament.
Further, it appears that Utah Valley, the team entitled to the WAC's exempt bid, could not host due to scheduling issues with their arena, which would mean the WAC did earn an exempt bid. However, local media reporting Utah Valley's NIT bid merely speculated and did not express certainty regarding why they were playing on the road. The Utah Valley athletics website offered no explanation for the team opening the NIT away from home. Without a definitive statement from the NCAA, the status of teams participating in the tournament as either exempt or at large remains unclear. If the WAC did not have an exempt bid, Utah Valley earned an automatic bid, because they were the WAC regular-season champion, did not win the conference tournament, and had a KNIT score better than 125.
The teams accepting exempt bids are shown below. No schools from the Big East, Big Ten, Ivy, or SEC accepted invitations, creating five additional at-large berths.
The final KNIT (average of Bart Torvik "T-Rank" Ranking (BTR), ESPN Basketball Power Index (BPI), Ken Pomeroy Rating (KPR), Kevin Pauga Index (KPI), NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET), Strength of Record (SOR) ranking, and Wins Above Bubble (WAB) ranking) scores of non-NCAA tournament teams from conferences that earned exempt bids through the close of play on March 16, 2025 (Selection Sunday) are summarized in the tables below. Teams in bold accepted a bid; teams in italics were extended an automatic bid but rejected it. Some Big East, Big Ten, and Big 12 teams were contractually obligated to decline.
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</div> All exempt qualifiers were given the opportunity to host first-round games.
Additionally, automatic bids were given to regular-season conference champions with an average ranking (or "KNIT" score) of 125 or better across the BTR, BPI, KPR, KPI, NET, SOR and WAB rankings.
The final KNIT scores through the close of play on March 15, 2025 (the morning of Selection Sunday), of teams that were conference regular-season champions, failed to win their conference tournament and are not from conferences receiving an exempt bid are summarized in the table below.
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Teams qualifying for and accepting automatic bids were as follows:
The following teams were awarded at-large bids.
<section begin=riverside />The NCAA caused confusion on Selection Sunday, by failing to communicate with at least one program invited to the NIT prior to the initial release of the bracket. Instead, it appears the NCAA assumed that mid-major schools would not decline an NIT bid. UC Riverside had already confirmed their participation in the 2025 College Basketball Invitational, before learning they had been invited to the NIT. For a brief time, NIT and CBI brackets co-existed showing UC Riverside playing in both tournaments. Participation in multiple postseason tournaments is not permitted under NCAA rules. After UC Riverside's commitment to play in the CBI came to the attention of the NCAA, instead of communicating with UC Riverside, they contacted South Alabama, the top remaining at-large team, and extended an NIT invitation to them. As the NCAA was communicating with South Alabama, UC Riverside was in contact with CBI organizers to decline their invitation to that tournament, so they could play in the NIT. After their commitment to the CBI was dissolved, UC Riverside contacted the NCAA and accepted their bid to the NIT. Just an hour after extending the invitation, the NCAA contacted South Alabama and informed them their bid to the NIT had been revoked.<section end=riverside />
Teams from the Big East, Big Ten and Big 12 conferences that were offered a bid or preemptively declined the opportunity to play in the 2025 College Basketball Crown were thereby contractually forbidden from playing in the NIT. Teams that fulfilled their obligations to decline were:
Participated in 2025 College Basketball Crown.
As described in detail above, it is unclear whether the Ivy League was an exempt-bid conference. If it was, all seven of its non-NCAA tournament teams declined bids to the NIT, since no Ivy League teams participated.
Rankings, ratings and records were through March 16, 2025 Selection Sunday and prior to any additional post-season activity. This also includes a "KNIT" score, which is leveraged as a criteria and evaluation tool for the National Invitation Tournament selection committee; it average of the following seven metrics, then ranks based on the results:
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All seeded teams hosted their first-round games, except for Dayton, because the First Four of the 2025 NCAA tournament was played on their home court. Dayton had another scheduling conflict with their arena and consequently played their second-round game on the road as well. All other second-round games were hosted by the higher seeded team. Seeded teams playing unseeded opponents hosted quarterfinal games. Hosts of other quarterfinal games are noted in the brackets below.
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ESPN, Inc. has exclusive rights to all of the NIT games. It telecasts every game across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3, and ESPN+. Westwood One has exclusive radio rights to the semifinals and the championship.