https://www.cbssports.com/college-basket...llas-area/
key points:
Field reduced to 16
The first four out are replacements for the NCAA Tournament should anyone drop out. They double as 1 seeds in the NIT
Teams will be announced right after the NCAA Tournament selection on Sunday, March 14 on ESPNU by the NIT Committee at 8:30 p.m. ET
Games will be held at the Comerica Center in Frisco, Texas (Texas Legends of the G League play there), and at the UNT Coliseum on North Texas' campus in Denton, Texas
************************ comment below
No word on whether automatic berths for regular season conference winners (rsw)will be honored. This is important as 10-15 schools from the mid-majors typically get these, and that pretty much fills up the field with mostly weaker programs. Typically only a few such schools are seeded (seeds 1-5). In recent years, the reformed selection has left fewer seeded rsw teams in the NIT. Unseeded rsw teams don't leave much room for majors left out of the NCAA tournament.
2014 had 13 rsw (3 seeded)
2015 had 12 rsw (2 seeded)
2016 had 15 rws (4 seeded)
2017 had 10 rsw (2 seeded)
2018 had 12 rsw (1 seeded)
2017 had 10 rsw (0 seeded)
Serious question, will they continue to honor rsw with the smaller field, or favor only seeded schools?