The National Women's Invitational Tournament (NWIT) was a post-season tournament for women's intercollegiate basketball programs that was contested from 1969 to 1996. The original sponsorship information appears to have been lost over the ensuing years. After the NWIT folded in 1996, the concept was resurrected in 1998 by Triple Crown Sports under the same name, but the name was changed the following season to the Women's National Invitation Tournament (also known as the WNIT).
Format Begun in the same year as the Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for Women's invitational tournament (which was assumed by the now-defunct Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women in 1972), the NWIT was an eight team, consolation bracket tournament held at the Amarillo Civic Center in Amarillo, Texas. Through 1974, the tournament included teams from both four-year colleges and junior colleges.
Championship history Source: YearChampionRunner-up1969Wayland Baptist 54Ouachita Baptist 341970Wayland Baptist 50Midwestern State 461971Wayland Baptist 63Parsons 441972Wayland Baptist 48John F. Kennedy College 411973Wayland Baptist 52John F. Kennedy College 491974Wayland Baptist 59John F. Kennedy College 521975Wayland Baptist 79UCLA 411976Wayland Baptist 90UCLA 771977Wayland Baptist 79UCLA 751978Old Dominion 70Texas 601979South Carolina 74Drake 711980Oregon State 71North Carolina 621981Georgia 75*Arizona State 731982Oregon State 76Florida State 601983New Orleans 68Memphis State 581984Vanderbilt 67Chattanooga 661985LSU 74Florida 541986Idaho 100 Northwestern State 911987Arkansas 112California 801988DePaul 83Purdue 551989Oregon 67San Diego State 641990Kentucky 85Toledo 761991Santa Clara 71Indiana 681992Georgia Tech 90Hawaii 721993Arkansas State 67SMU 541994Oklahoma 69Arkansas State 651995Texas A&M 85Northwestern State 811996Arizona 79Northwestern 63 *Overtime
See also NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship NCAA Women's Division II Basketball Championship NCAA Women's Division III Basketball Championship Women's National Invitation Tournament Women's Basketball Invitational NAIA Women's Basketball Championships AIAW women's basketball tournament
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