NIT Bracketology Has West Virginia Missing Out in March

As West Virginia awaits their postseason fate on Sunday, the Mountaineers have been left out of the National Invitation Tournament’s bracketology predictions.

According to the few bracketologists that actually predict the NIT Tournament field, WVU is left out of everyone’s. This puts West Virginia in a unique situation after the report that the team will not accept a CBI Tournament bid, first reported by Mike Casazza of 247 Sports. 

The NIT Tournament gives an automatic bid to the schools who won their regular season championships but didn’t make March Madness. For example, since Iona won the MAAC Regular Season Title, but not the conference tournament, they will have an automatic spot in the NIT. With a 32-team field, this limits the opportunity for Power-5 schools that struggled this season.

If West Virginia is not invited to the NIT, their season will essentially be over if the report about them not being interested in the CBI is true. After Thursday’s loss to Kansas in the Big 12 quarterfinals, WVU head coach Bob Huggins made it clear that his team wants to play. Huggins even asked his team if they want to continue to play and they said yes.

“I think the question is if they want to play and I asked them that and they want to play,” Huggins said. “I enjoy coaching them, I enjoy representing West Virginia University and the great state of West Virginia.”

The NIT will announce their tournament field at 9 p.m. on Sunday, right after the Selection Sunday show.