Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
SMU, Dayton, San Francisco and UC Irvine highlight the NIT field
BY ALEJANDRO LOPEZ
The NCAA Tournament is the talk of the town, but for fans of the schools that just missed out, the NIT could be a chance to show what the Big Dance is missing out on.
SMU, Dayton, San Francisco, and UC Irvine highlight what the NIT offers this year as the tournament’s No. 1 seeds.
26 of the 32 NIT teams won at least 20 games in the 2024-25 season. For the fourth straight season, the NIT only seeded the top half of the 32-team field. Dayton is making its 28th appearance in the NIT, the most of any team in the 2025 field and the second most ever.
“We’re excited about the extremely competitive field we put together,” said Tim Duncan, senior deputy athletics director at Memphis and chair of the NIT committee. “Not only do we have a field of 26 teams with at least 20 wins this season, but we have teams from 15 different conferences.”
The first round is scheduled to begin on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 18 and 19.
-team #NIT2025 field. Stand by for brackets, seedings and broadcast info. pic.twitter.com/gFlx23TKzt
