The National Commissioners Invitational Tournament was an eight-team postseason men's college basketball tournament run by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It was introduced in 1974 as the Collegiate Commissioners Association Tournament. Invitees were runner-up teams in major conferences, which were required to participate, creating a threat to the established National Invitation Tournament (NIT),[1] which, at that time, the NCAA did not control.[2]Bobby Knight, head coach of Indiana, winner of the inaugural tournament, did not want to participate, because he believed it was created to "run the NIT out of business," which he opposed.[1] The tournament lasted only two years before being discontinued after changes to the NCAA tournament rules, which allowed more than one team per conference to participate.
The tournament was won in 1974 by Indiana over USC, 85–60, in St. Louis, Missouri. The 1974 tournament featured a collection of teams that came in second in their conferences due to NCAA tournament rules at the time which only invited conference champions.
In 1975, the NCAA tournament expanded to include at-large teams, from a total of 25 to 32 teams and began inviting more than one team from some conferences rather than solely conference champions. However, the 1975 tournament, renamed the National Commissioners Invitational Tournament, was still held and was won by Drake over Arizona, 83–76, in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Commissioners Invitational Tournament was discontinued after the 1975 tournament.
Drake's NCIT banner can be seen hanging (4th from left)
The Big 8, Big Ten, MAC, Missouri Valley, Pac-8, SEC and WAC sent teams to both tournaments. The Southwest was only invited to the 1974 tournament, while the Southern Conference was only invited to the 1975 tournament.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
