The 2021 National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 16 NCAA Division I men's college basketball teams that had not been selected to participate in the 2021 NCAA tournament. The Tournament began on March 17 and ended on March 28. All rounds were played at the Comerica Center in Frisco, Texas or the UNT Coliseum in Denton, Texas. First-round games began on Wednesday, March 17, and was played through Saturday, March 20. Quarterfinals also took place Thursday, March 25. The semifinals and championship took place Saturday and Sunday, March 27 and 28. The 2021 tournament also featured a third-place game Sunday, March 28, which had not been played at the NIT since 2003. Also, the final game to be played was not the championship, but, rather, the third-place game. This was the first NIT in which the semifinals and final were not played in New York City.
Participants Teams and pairings for the 2021 NIT were released by the NIT Committee at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time Sunday, March 14, on ESPNU. Because of the reduced field size, halved from 2019's tournament field, all 16 teams were selected as at-large participants, and there were no automatic qualifiers for the 2021 NIT. In 2019, Texas won the NIT title. The 2020 tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Automatic qualifiers There were no automatic qualifiers in the 2021 NIT due to the reduced field size.
At-large bids The following teams were awarded NIT berths. TeamConferenceOverall recordAppearanceLast bidBoise StateMtn West 18–87th2018BuffaloMAC 16–82nd2005Colorado StateMtn West 18–610th2017DavidsonAtlantic 10 13–89th2019DaytonAtlantic 10 14–926th2019Louisiana TechC–USA 21–710th2015MemphisAmerican 16–819th2019Mississippi StateSEC 15–1410th2018NC StateACC 13–1013th2019Ole MissSEC 16–1113th2017RichmondAtlantic 10 13–810th2017Saint LouisAtlantic 10 14–619th2004Saint Mary'sWCC 14–97th2018SMUAmerican 11–54th2014ToledoMAC 21–810th2019Western KentuckyC–USA 20–715th2018
Bracket The field of 16 teams was announced on March 14 on ESPNU.
Media ESPN, Inc. broadcast all NIT games on ESPN or ESPN2. The semifinals and finals were broadcast on ESPN. Westwood One had exclusive radio rights to the semifinals and the championship.
See also 2021 Women's National Invitation Tournament
References