The 2021 National Invitation Tournament was a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

of 16

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men's

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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

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or the

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. 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

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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 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

won the NIT title. The

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

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.

Bracket

The field of 16 teams was announced on March 14 on

ESPNU ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remain ...

Media

ESPN, Inc. broadcast all NIT games on

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

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. The semifinals and finals were broadcast on ESPN.

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had exclusive radio rights to the semifinals and the championship.

References

{{2021 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament navbox

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is an annual men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2023, all rounds of the tournament are played at various sites across the country whi ...

Basketball in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex College basketball tournaments in Texas