There’s no question about it: the NCAA Tournament is the most important postseason college basketball competition. However, what about the other two postseason tournaments, the College Basketball Crown and the National Invitation Tournament (NIT)? Which one is the second best?
The NIT wins on historical grounds, having started in 1938, a year before the NCAA Tournament (1939). There, it has a huge lead over the College Basketball Crown, which started recently in 2024 as an alternative to both the NIT and the NCAA Tournament.
However, it could be said on the level of play that the College Basketball Crown has the upper hand, as it features teams from the Big East Conference, Big Ten Conference, and Big 12 Conference that didn’t make it to the NCAA Tournament. While the NIT attracts teams from the whole spectrum of Division I, it has always been seen as a consolation prize for teams that didn’t make it into the NCAA Tournament.
The fact that it attracts teams from the entire nation also means it’s unlikely you get to see peer-to-peer matchups, which are much more possible in a tournament focusing on the Big East, Big Ten, and Big 12.
It would be easy to say that, while the NIT still holds a bigger halo due to its much more storied past, the College Basketball Crown is well on its way to overcoming it as the second-best postseason tournament in college basketball.
What is helping the College Basketball Crown overtake the NIT?
There’s one thing that is helping the College Basketball Crown become a meaningful tournament for programs to participate in. They’re playing for real money to develop their programs. The tournament’s sponsors, FOX Sports and AEG, are putting out a $500,000 NIL Prize pool.
The teams that reach the semifinals and lose will be taking home $50,000. The runner-up will cash $100,000, and the champions will pocket some $300,000. While this might not seem like game-changing money in the modern economics of college athletics, it can be significant money for a smaller-sized program.
It also gives teams something to play for, the something being the resources to improve their program and contend for an NCAA Tournament run in the following season.
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