NIT Is NOT For the ACC, Especially U-MD!

Now that Maryland is quickly out of the NIT, can we agree the Terps should never have been in the NIT to begin with? No, not that they should have refused the bid. You can't say nyet to the NIT. It's your duty to college basketball at large to accept the bid -- regardless of what your players say, or how your AD hangs you out to dry.

But the NIT should not invite any also-rans from the power conferences. If you play in the ACC, Big East, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 or Pac-10, and you don't make the NCAAs, that's it, you're done, go home. No fifth-, sixth-, seventh-, eighth- and even ninth-place teams from power conferences should be in the NIT.

The NIT should rightfully be the championship of the mid-majors. Then it would mean something. It should invite 32 to 48 teams drawn exclusively from the lesser conferences, like the Patriot League and Colonial. Not only would also-ran teams from those conferences (like Hofstra in the CAA; Vermont in the America East) be eligible for an NIT bid, but their automatic NCAA qualifiers also would become eligible to drop into the NIT draw upon being eliminated from the NCAAs -- if that elimination comes before the Sweet 16. So, for example, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, George Washington and Bucknell could now join the NIT in progress, as bye teams, in effect. But Gonzaga and -- holy cow! -- George Mason could not.

The cutoff point for NIT-eligible conferences should be three bids. If your league gets four NCAA bids, like the MVC this season, your exclusive postseason tournament must be the big boy, the NCAAs. (And if you don't think it's the big boy, how about yesterday's first game featuring Brad Pitt?) Obviously, mid-major conferences being affected could fluctuate from year to year. But the point is to make the NIT meaningful to most college teams, and not just a trough for disappointing power schools.

Wouldn't you like to see GW play on toward a national title, and reward its exemplary season? Rather than punish Maryland for its disappointing one?