Fourth Post-Season Tournament

There used to be just two NCAA post-season tournaments - the NCAA and the NIT. Last year, the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) was introduced by the Gazelle Group. This year a fourth post-season tournament was added: The College Insider Postseason Tournament (CIT). There are 16 teams, just like the CBI.

With the CBI, teams are grouped into regions (4 regions of 4 teams each). The games are played on the home courts of the higher seeds (so the 2nd round location isn't known until both first round games are complete). After the 2nd round, teams are re-seeded and games are played on the home courts of the higher seeds. The final round is a best of three with the higher seed getting the first and (if necessary) third game.

For the CIT, it looks like it is just a straight tournament but teams are re-seeded after each round. The one nice thing about the CIT is that they prioritize their selection based on mid-major conferences. According to their web site, "Teams whose conferences have less than fifty-percent (50%) of their teams participating in the NCAA and NIT tournaments will be given higher priority for selection into the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament." Looking at the inaugural bracket, there isn't a single team from one of the "big 6" conferences participating.

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