Sippin' On Purple · Mar 13, 2016
NIT Selection Show 2016: TV channel, start time, bracket, tournament schedule
Sunday night, hours after the drama of the NCAA Tournament selection show unfolds live on CBS, it's the NIT's turn. Following the NCAA Tournament selection committee's decision on the 68-team field for the main event, the NIT gets its pick of 32 teams for its tournament.
The NIT gives automatic bids to regular season conference champions that don't win their conference tournaments and aren't given at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament. The rest of the 32-team field is filled with at-large teams using the same criteria that the NCAA Tournament committee uses. The one stipulation is that a team must have at least a .500 record to be eligible for the NIT.