The unofficial online home for fans of the Kent State University Golden Flashes. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

I know I know, we definetly want to win the MAC and go to the big dance and immediately afterwards it won't even sound good to us but here's what gets us for sure in.
1) George Mason or IUPUI (preferrably both) win their conference tourneys.
2) Win up in till friday or saturday of MAC tourney and you're in.
3) I don't even know why i just posted this! How can I even think of the possibility of losing to chokeron, ohio, miami, or toledo!!!
4) Don't worry Flash fans, I don't think we need to worry about this kind of meltdown at the Q. I think we will win the MAC!!!! (man i hope so...) :shhh: :shhh: :shhh:
5) GO FLASHES! Beat WMU, chokeron and miami/toledo/ohio!!!!!!! ;-) See you friday zits.

I dunno, eliteeight02. Toledo has definitely qualified for the NIT, and probably Akron, but with the NIT down to 32 team, Kent certainly hasn't clinched an NIT berth. Not yet, anyway. Not sure what they would have to do. As you stated, lots will depend upon what happens in other conferences. There could be as many as 16 conference champions going to the NCAA that will be there solely because of the automatic bid (including the MAC this year), and that pushes 16 good teams out of the NCAA and down to NIT consideration. While I'm 100% in favor of the automatic NCAA bid, it ironically actually cuts back on the number of NIT bids the MAC can get.

Why did they cut the NIT to 32?

Don't know AlphaFlash. I suppose it has to do with money one way or the other. The NCAA took over the NIT. The NIT is one of those events that just keeps hanging on despite its lessening importance and popularity. Hard to believe that there was a time when the NIT was considered a bigger deal than the NCAA tournament, and that as late as early 1970's was almost as big, with the NCAA having 25 teams and the NIT 16. The NCAA had only 16 automatic bids, and only one team per conference could go, so there were teams in the NIT better than some in the NCAA, and teams that had a bonafide chance of winning the NCAA were stuck in the NIT because of the one team per conference rule.

I was just looking at the latest RPI, as well as other stuff. I think the only way for Kent to be virtually assured of going to the NIT would be to make it to the MAC championship game AND for their opponent to be Toledo. Short of that, it is pretty iffy. Of course, we all hope the whole NIT thing is moot.

AlphaFlash Wrote:Why did they cut the NIT to 32?

I wonder if they did that to even out the brackets, so that everyone plays the same amount of games. Before, there might be a mid-major school that would play a game or two, and then play a bigger school, who hadn't even had to play yet. I didn't like the staggered brackets.

For those with any interest in the current state of the NIT (again, I hope it moot for Kent), the below may be interesting:

Selection process
In the past, NIT teams were selected in consultation with ESPN, the television home of the NIT [1]. The goal of the NIT was to sustain the MIBA financially. Therefore, schools selected to play in the NIT were often major conference teams with records near .500 that had large television fan bases and would likely have a respectable attendance for tournament games on their homecourt. The latter is one reason why New Mexico was invited virtually every year they had a winning season but failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament [2]. Seeding considerations and home field advantage included the number of fans willing to show up to each game. In an effort to maintain some quality, a rule saying that a team must have a .500 record to qualify for the NIT was imposed. This prevented ESPN from suggesting major conference teams that finished at or very near the bottom of their conference standings but would likely garner good fan interest.

The NCAA announced a revamped selection process starting with the 2006 tournament. The main highlights are:

Teams are no longer required to have .500 or greater records to receive bids. This may have an effect on the last few teams invited. However, in 2006, all teams qualifying for the NIT had a record greater than .500.
All teams that won regular-season conference championships but failed to earn NCAA tournament bids are guaranteed places in the NIT. Thus, more teams from the low-major conferences may qualify. (Mid-major regular season conference champions have traditionally been invited.)
In addition, the selection process has been made transparent. ESPN will no longer help select the teams. Instead, a committee of six former NCAA head coaches, C. M. Newton (Alabama), Dean Smith (North Carolina), Don DeVoe (Tennessee), Reggie Minton, John Powers and Carroll Williams, prepared a list of potential teams in advance. The seeding and balancing process is similar to that of the NCAA tournament, with the exception that higher seeded teams will always host games, unless extenuating circumstances occur. In the past, higher seeded mid-major teams would often be forced to travel to play less highly regarded major conference teams that would be likely to sell more tickets to the game [3].

Furthermore, ESPN will continue to provide television coverage of the tournament. The NIT has a 10-year, $24.1 million contract with ESPN; this compares with the 11-year, $6.2 billion TV contract with CBS for the NCAA tournament.

These changes are intended to encourage participation by good college teams that would rather stay home than play in the NIT