The only other game to watch out for today, in terms of NIT implications, is Lehigh's game against Army in the Patriot League tournament.
UPDATE: According to this article, the Atlantic Sun changed its tiebreaker rule for the NIT bid. It now states that the regular-season champion who advances furthest in the A-Sun tournament will get the NIT automatic bid. So Lipscomb won't go to the NIT, leaving Belmont, Jacksonville, and Campbell still in the running provided they don't win the A-Sun tournament. (The tournament champion, of course, goes to the NCAA tournament.)
2ND UPDATE: Belmont and Campbell both lost today, making Jacksonville the recipient of the automatic NIT bid should it not win the conference tournament.
3RD UPDATE: According to the director of athletics at Lipscomb, the Bisons would receive the automatic NIT bid should Jacksonville win the conference tournament.
3 comments:
If Jacksonville wins the conference tourney, wouldn't Lipscomb still get the NIT bid since they were the #1 seed and since #3 and #4 also lost in the first round of the conference tourney?
I'm trying to find that out. Usually, if the regular season champion also wins the conference tournament, the conference doesn't get a NIT automatic bid. So if Jacksonville ends up winning the tournament, the Atlantic Sun may not have an automatic bid to give to Lipscomb. By Saturday, everything should be cleared up. I just hope I don't have to change the title of this blog post again.
I'm confused.
The NIT rules say that the bid is given based on conference regular-season tiebreakers. That is to say, unlike the NCAA tournament the NIT bid belongs to the team, not the conference. If Lipscomb had won the A-Sun tournament, there would have been no automatic NIT bid for the conference to assign.
But the A-Sun (and, apparently, Lipscomb) are saying that the NIT should invite Jacksonville instead, even though by NIT rule the bid is Lipscomb's. And as I read the rules, even if Lipscomb were to decline the bid, it would be filled by the next available at-large team, not necessarily Jacksonville.
Has anybody associated with the NIT commented on this? And what am I missing?
Post a Comment