My NIT Bracket

Yes, you read that correctly.  Now that the bracket has been announced, a bunch of disappointed bubble teams must regroup and get ready for the NIT.  Of course, the benefit they get to enjoy in the NIT is home games until the quarterfinals, with the semis and final at Madison Square Garden.  Nobody ever bothers to predict the NIT field (partially because it's insignificant, partially because picking the NCAA field is hard enough).  Never fear, that's what I'm here for.

When the NCAA bought the NIT, they made the very smart decision to give automatic bids to the NIT to conference regular season champions that didn't win their tournaments.  That number obviously changes every year depending on how many of those teams get at-large bids, but this year there will be 13 NIT auto bids.  That leaves 19 at-large bids for those whose bubbles were burst (Colorado, Alabama, Virginia Tech), as well as the major-conference teams that knew they weren't going to get into the Tournament (Maryland, Baylor, Mississippi).  So, without further ado, here's possibly the first NIT mock bracket you've ever actually seen somebody create (*-auto bids):

Boston College Region
(8) *Vermont at (1) Boston College
(5) *Kent State at (4) *Harvard
(6) Cleveland State at (3) Minnesota
(7) *Fairfield at (2) Maryland

Alabama Region
(8) *Bethune-Cookman at (1) Alabama
(5) *Murray State at (4) Miami
(6) Oklahoma State at (3) Colorado State
(7) *College of Charleston at (2) Baylor

Virginia Tech Region
(8) *Coastal Carolina at (1) Virginia Tech
(5) Dayton at (4) Nebraska
(6) Northwestern at (3) *Missouri State
(7) *Florida Atlantic at (2) Mississippi

Colorado Region
(8) *McNeese State at (1) Colorado
(5) Washington State at (4) Saint Mary's
(6) *Texas Southern at (3) UTEP
(7) *Long Beach State at (2) New Mexico

So there you go.  Once they get to the Garden, it would be BC vs. Alabama and Virginia Tech vs. Colorado.  If anyone actually cares, the NIT Selection Show is tonight at 9:00 on ESPNU.  But seeing as my Cleveland State-Minnesota and Washington State-Saint Mary's games are better than the Texas-San Antonio vs. Alabama State and UNC Asheville vs. Arkansas-Little Rock matchups that the NCAA gave us, finding out who's in the NIT might have some appeal.

And for the record, no I will NOT be filling out my projected CBI and CIT brackets.