Fixing Something Beyond Repair: the NIT

Here's a poor decision: I like sports. It's fun, but it makes you come up with ideas like this:

On Thursday, the NCAA Tournament kicks off for another three weekends of excitement, slacking off at work and learning just where Morehead State is. But tonight, the other tournament started: the NIT. Considered the "66th place tournament" by many, this event takes conference tournament failures from minor conferences and pairs them up against mediocre major-conference teams, in an affair kept afloat by ESPN's desire to show basketball even while all the good teams have left for CBS. This tournament used to have meaning; at its inception, the NIT was the national championship tournament, and for a long time, featured the runners-up of the major conferences back when only one team per conference made the NCAAs, but since the at-large bids have grown to the point where the Big Ten's top half can all go to the Big Dance, the NIT has become a four-letter word in basketball. But there's a way to fix it.

Every year, 32 teams exit the NCAA tournament in the first two days, and another 16 are gone by the first Sunday. This usually includes a few very good teams that suffered upsets along the way, teams that are done while their conference's also-rans live on to play into April. Why don't we use this source of talented basketball teams to give a quantum of respect back to the word NIT?

Here's what I'm thinking: keep inviting the top 65 teams to the main tournament, and the next 32 to the NIT. Go ahead and play the first round of the NIT on Tuesday and Wednesday. But after the first round of NCAA games, take all of the losing teams and have them compete against each other in the second round of the NIT. (You've got the arena, you've got the teams, and you could show the games on ESPN as a part of their TV rights. Just stagger the NIT games with the NCAA games so that we still get a full day of championship basketball.) Take the winning 16 teams in the first and second rounds and have them pair off and play in the third round, giving home-court advantage to the team that made it to the NCAA tournament. Take the sixteen survivors from that round, add in the sixteen losers in the second round of the main tournament, and have them play off for the NIT championship. This way, you get more basketball, an NIT title that has at least a little respect, and best of all, a championship that the Fighting Illini can actually win this year.