The 2026 National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is an ongoing single-elimination tournament of thirty-two NCAA Division I men's college basketball teams not selected to participate in the 2026 NCAA tournament. The tournament commenced on March 17 and will conclude on April 5. The first three rounds will be played on campus sites, with the semifinal round played at Hinkle Fieldhouse and the final played at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, both in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The NIT was the debut tournament for St. Thomas. It was also Navy's first NIT appearance since 1962.
Chattanooga are the defending NIT champions.
Teams and pairings for the 2026 NIT were released by the NIT Committee on March 15, 2026. Thirty-two teams qualified for the NIT, including exempt qualifiers, automatic qualifiers, and at-large selections.
Non-NCAA tournament teams from the Big East, Big Ten and Big 12 conferences are contractually prohibited from playing in any other postseason tournament, including the NIT, if they decline an invitation or remove themselves from consideration for a bid to the College Basketball Crown.
For the 2026 NIT, exempt bids were extended to two teams from the Atlantic Coast (ACC) and Southeastern (SEC) conferences, plus one team from each of the top twelve conferences as rated by the Pomeroy College Basketball Ratings (KenPom) on the morning of March 15, 2026. Exempt qualifiers are seeded and guaranteed the opportunity to host a first-round game, subject to venue availability. The KenPom conference ratings used to determine exempt qualifier status were as follows:
The teams accepting exempt bids are shown below. No schools from the Big East or Big Ten accepted invitations. Only two of the ACC's and one of the SEC's three exempt bids were accepted, 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 14, 2026, the morning of (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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Automatic bids are 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 14, 2026 (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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</div> Teams qualifying for and accepting automatic bids were as follows:
After eleven of the sixteen available exempt bids were accepted, and four teams qualified for and accepted automatic bids, seventeen at-large bids were available to fill the 32-team field. The following teams accepted at-large bids.
Teams from the Big East, Big Ten and Big 12 conferences that either preemptively declined an opportunity or were offered a bid to play in the 2026 College Basketball Crown were contractually forbidden from participating in the NIT.
â Participating in 2026 College Basketball Crown.
Since only 11 exempt qualifiers accepted bids, five automatic/at-large teams were seeded to complete the 32-team bracket. Nevada was awarded a number two seed, while Colorado State, George Mason, Wichita State and Yale were assigned number three seeds.
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ESPN, Inc. has exclusive rights to all of the NIT games. It telecasts every game across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPN+. Westwood One has exclusive radio rights to both the semifinal and final rounds.