The CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) was an American men's

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

postseason tournament founded by

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. The tournament was oriented toward schools that did not get selected for the

NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...

(NIT). The tournament was first contested in 2009. In 2012, it expanded to 32 participating teams, but contracted to 26 teams for the 2016, 2017, and 2019 editions, and 20 teams in 2018. The tournament was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the

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. In 2022, the tournament was re-launched and rebranded as

The Basketball Classic The Basketball Classic presented by ERACE is a single-elimination, fully-bracketed men's college basketball postseason tournament created in 2022 as successor to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, featuring 32 National Collegiate A ...

Format

The tournament consists of five rounds, single elimination-style, and claims to "use the old NIT model in which matchups in future rounds are determined by the results of the previous round". Criteria for selection include, but are not limited to, win–loss record, strength of schedule, strength of conference, and final ten games. Teams from "major conferences" (defined by CollegeInsider.com as the

Power Five conferences The Power Five conferences are the five most prominent and highest-earning athletic conferences in college football in the United States. They are part of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA D ...

Atlantic 10 Conference The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Eastern ...

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

Big East Conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and M ...

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

and

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

) are generally ineligible. Participating teams must finish the regular season with a .500 winning percentage or better to qualify. The only exception to this was the now-defunct

Great West Conference The Great West Conference (GWC) was an NCAA college athletic conference in the continental United States. Originally a football-only league, it became an all-sports entity during the 2008–09 season. The GWC stopped sponsoring football followin ...

Tournament winner, who was given an automatic bid to play in the CIT if they were not given an at-large bid to participate in the NCAA or NIT tournaments, until the dissolution of the conference in 2013–14. In 2013, the

Chicago State Cougars The Chicago State Cougars are the varsity athletic teams representing Chicago State University of Chicago, Illinois in intercollegiate athletics. The university currently sponsors 15 varsity teams. The Cougars compete in NCAA Division I as an ind ...

won the Great West Conference Tournament, thus becoming the first team to participate in the CIT with a sub-.500 record (11–21). From the 2016 Tournament to 2019, The Coach John McLendon Classic is played on the first day of the tournament. The Classic will feature at least one historically black college/university. The winner of the John McLendon Classic will advance to the second round of the CIT. This has been the first time in NCAA Division I Basketball history that a "Classic" has been part of a postseason tournament. Previously the John McLendon Classic was played during the regular season. Teams must pay $30,000 to host a game.

Broadcast

In 2013,

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known as ...

partnered with the CIT, showing only the championship game, with the earlier rounds streamed live online. Free registration is required to view the games. Starting in 2014, CBSSN aired the semifinals and the championship game. In 2017 the early rounds of the tournament were shown on

Facebook Live Facebook is a social-network service website launched on February 4, 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. The following is a list of software and technology features that can be found on the Facebook website and mobile app and are available to users of t ...

. In 2018 Monday's 4 classics were announced for CBSSN. All remaining games until the semifinals were moved to CBS' Sports Live streaming service and watchcit.com. The following is an overview and list of the announcers and television networks to broadcast the CIT:

Champions

References

External links

*
CIT record book
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