The National Invitation Tournament is shrinking its annual tournament this month, the NCAA announced Monday.
NIT will feature 16 teams all playing in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, with games taking place at the Comerica Center in Frisco and the UNT Coliseum on the North Texas campus in Denton.
In previous years, the tournament had 32 teams, with games held on campus through the semifinals and a championship game at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Another notable change is the invitation process. Since 2017, all the regular season champions who did not win their conference tournament have received an automatic offer at NIT, the rest of the field being occupied by large selections. Due to the small field, all 16 teams will be big selections, without automatic qualifications.
There was no tournament last season due to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving Texas as the defending champion. The Longhorns defeated Lipscomb in the 2019 title game.