Selection Sunday revealed the March Madness fates of many bubble teams, who were hoping to secure a spot in the Big Dance, including the Auburn Tigers.
Unfortunately for Auburn, they were not invited to the big college basketball tournament, despite their coach making his best case for them to receive a spot. Instead, the Tigers will dance in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), with the bracket reveal, seeds, and first-round schedule arriving on Sunday night.
Auburn received one of the four top seeds in the NIT bracket and will host South Alabama on Tuesday night. In addition, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, New Mexico Lobos, and Tulsa Golden Hurricanes are also No. 1 seeds receiving host status for their first-round games.
Along with Auburn, the Oklahoma Sooners were a very close team on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament, but will not participate in the NIT as they officially declined an invite. However, their in-state rivals, Oklahoma State, are among the No. 2 seeds in the NIT.
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Other No. 2 seeds will include the Dayton Flyers, who lost in their conference tournament game on Sunday to VCU, costing them an automatic NCAA Tournament spot. The California Golden Bears and Nevada Wolf Pack are also No. 2 seeds in the NIT bracket.
The four regions are based on the top seeds, which serve as those region’s locations: Auburn, Albuquerque, Tulsa, and Winston-Salem. The second round and quarterfinal schedule is announced after the first round games are completed.
Both the semifinal and final of the NIT will occur in Indiana. While the semifinal occurs at Indianapolis’s Hinkle Fieldhouse on April 4, the final is held at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, on April 5.
Games officially tip off on Tuesday, March 17, with more first-round games occurring on Wednesday, March 18. The full NIT bracket shows all of the first-round matchups and the schedule of games.
This year’s NIT should crown a new champion, as the 2025 winner was the Chattanooga Mocs. In 2024, the Seton Hall Pirates won the tournament, with North Texas, Xavier, and Memphis winning the three years before that.
Of the teams involved this year, Tulsa is a two-time winner, claiming the NIT in 1981 and 2001. The Wake Forest Demon Deacons won the tournament in 2000, defeating Notre Dame in the NIT Final.
While it’s not quite the NCAA Tournament, it gives the teams that made the field of 32 a chance to achieve some postseason success and build some momentum towards their next college basketball seasons.
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