For those BYU fans interested to see where the Cougars might end up in the NIT bracket with their pathetic February and March effort, here's a list of "automatic" bids in the 32-team NIT that have already been taken. Any regular season conference champion that does not make the NCAA Tournament automatically receives a bid to the NIT. So if the regular season champion in a one-bid league doesn't win the conference tournament, they go to the NIT. Currently, that list includes the following:
Stony Brook (America East)
Mercer (Atlantic Sun)
Charleston Southern (Big South)
Niagara (MAAC)
Robert Morris (NEC)
Middle Tennessee State (Sun Belt: possible/likely they make NCAA tournament)
Generally this list tops out at about 10 automatic NIT bids, though this is 6 out of 12 possible thus far (with only 1 team winning conference tourney thus far, the other regular season champs just have not been eliminated yet), so maybe this season it is might be more like 12. Certainly there isn't much concern of BYU entirely missing the NIT field, and these teams will not impact BYU's seeding.
I figure there are roughly 12-16 teams ahead of BYU in the NIT pool in terms of seeding right now, depending on how many bid stealers there are in conference tournaments. BYU's only chance of winning a game is that that they are the 16th team or better in NIT seeding. Without a home game (i.e. a 4-seed or better), they won't win a game. Though I believe even at home as a 3- or 4-seed, they are likely to lose. I'm guessing they get a 5-seed (maybe a 6) and start out on the road against a BCS conference foe like Tennessee or Stanford. Maybe they end up playing a more local non-BCS team (Wyoming or Denver perhaps), and maybe even get that game at home. The NIT has to consider that a BYU home game generates more excitement for the NIT than a BYU road game, and they have been STRUGGLING to get any kind of enthusiasm for their tourney for a few years now...
I remember my sophomore year at the Y, when BYU students and fans hoped the Cougars were good enough for an NIT home game. Things have changed a lot for the better these past 9 years: we are all extremely disappointed at this season's results...yet, the possibility still exists of an NIT home game. Thank you, Dave Rose, for raising our "normal" expectations out of the dark abyss in which we currently (and hopefully briefly) dwell.
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