So, every expert has Loyola solidly in the NIT. This begs the question how are home games determined?

Let’s assume this is the bracket…..just for analysis of home/road hypotheticals.

https://www.nitbracketology.com/2024/03 ... 7.html?m=1

1. Loyola would be at St. John’s unless St. John’s could not host.
2. If Loyola won they would be either HOME v.s. Georgia next Saturday or Sunday or @ Virginia Tech (unless VT could not host or Georgia didn’t host VT in round 1 due to arena availability.)

Is the NIT similar to the IHSA football playoffs, where the lower seed can host in the second round if they were on the road in the first round and their opponent was a home team in the first round? I believe this to be the case. Basically if Loyola upsets the higher seed in the first round and their second round opponent was a first round home team, Loyola hosts. Georgia @ Loyola next weekend would be fun.


This team is definitely capable of going to the NIT Final Four at Hinkle.


Selection show at 8:30 on ESPN2.

A gripe I have is that the NIT is well overdue to be merged into the NCAA Big Dance, or dismantle the NIT. Either way, expand the Dance to 86 teams, which is just under 25% of 350 teams. (Current 68 is roughly 20%) 86 is a number that would still ensure that only good or hot teams are playing. Alternatively, maybe just expand the number of "play-in" teams to satisfy the bracket construction. I'll leave that up to the bracket pros.

The problem with the NIT is that you have to be a loser in your conference tournament (and no dance invite) to get invited to the NIT tournament. You are also NOT chasing the NCAA National Championship. So teams would not turn down an invite like one just did today. See below link.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/101 ... tournament

There is also a good chance that Loyola would have made the Big Dance had we had an 86 team NCAA National Championship Tournament.

Loyola - Bradley

Wednesday, March 20, 2024 6pm at Carver Arena in Peoria.

We’re in. It will be nice to see the boys play again. No secrets with Bradley. It will be a hard fought game.

I am not for the expansion of the NCAA tournament. All it would do is allow for all these P5 conferences to get their entire leagues in. They already get too many bids. March Madness is special because of the automatic bids and the little guys get to play teams that normally don’t schedule them. The upsets, the drama. It’s OK to be difficult to get in. The NCAA has just gone pure commercial chasing the $$$$$. Case in point, Indiana State had a 29 NET and did not get in. The metrics are meaningless and it’s a disgrace.

Trial Balloons: The NIT prides itself in trying out new rules, formats for the NCAA to consider. This year they will be using a wider lane.

They also changed the invite process so now the top 2 Net ranked teams in each P5 conference who don’t get into the NCAA get automatic bids. The Conference regular season champs who don’t get invited to NCAA no longer get automatic bids. I believe this is a trial balloon to see if fans are OK with this. The next big change for the NCAA could be to give the P5 conferences a guaranteed number of bids to NCAA and perhaps getting rid of the automatic bids. Nothing in the NCAA is ever random or coincidence and with these conference getting bigger and generating more money they will try to protect them as much as they can. They are already talking about going to 12 or 14 for the football playoffs in 2026.

The only problem is that they have never figured out a true metric system and P5s protect their status by not scheduling dangerous mid-majors.

BTW, Indiana State coach reported in discussions with St. Louis to be next Coach. Will Indiana State become a one hit wonder if he leaves and takes some players with him?

I am also against tournament expansion, but not strongly against it. I could probably be convinced the other way.

What I am VERY VERY strongly against is under .500 teams getting into the NIT. It just happened with Xavier, and I hope it's not a camel's nose under the tent. I imagine they'll say it's because Oklahoma, Indiana, Memphis, St. John's and others turned down bids. I'd rather see Louisiana Tech, Santa Clara, Western Carolina, etc. in the NIT than an under .500 team. There should be a consequence to enormous P6 conferences hoarding all the Q1 and even Q2 opportunities. There were teams that went 8-10 in the Big 12 that didn't get in this year, and thought they were too good for the NIT. Good, stay home.

Possible massive homecoming for our Ohio players. If we beat Bradley, they could be heading to Cinncy! I am sure our guys would love to play in an NIT game in their home State in front of family and friends.

Of course, if we win and USF wins, we should be the higher seed and in line for a home game March 24.

Of course, we need to focus on Bradley, lol

Teams turning down the NIT waters down the tournament in my eyes. I don't know how else to stop teams from turning down unless you dismantle it and incorporate it into the big dance. I should also add that a stipulation such as all teams winning the conference tournament and who finish first (I will assume that gets put in place permanently) in their conference are auto bids. Then you are looking at some 20 or so teams at large. I guess at that point, let the party (of corruption and money or whatever negative gets placed upon it) begin. But no team will turn down the dance, and who wants to win an NIT tournament at which other teams thumbed their noses? Or maybe take some part of the NIT or the idea of the NIT and place it as the annual Nov tournaments, on a much smaller scale. Just thinking out loud, but I can't stand turn downs which amounts to watering down.

Playing in it or win it, it keeps your program in the public eye. It still raises your profile, and it can be a nice spring board for your kids to gain Tournament experience. Contrary to what some might think, the teams, their students, donors will be excited.

Porter entered us in the CBI and it launched the program when we won it and went on to great success and National awareness. At that time, after watching LU struggle for years, I was ecstatic. I was excited to see the progress and growth of that team. Teams, coaches, players should never be so arrogant or entitled to think they above an event like the NIT.

What about throwing NIL money at the NIT!?!? Players would have a heart attack if their program turned down the opportunity!