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Report User Here, FOX Funhouse editors Dave Doyle, Brian Gianelli, Andy Nesbitt and Jim Reineking toss out some hot sports opinions on the National Invitational Tournament, which has already opened play (in case you haven't noticed) ...
Andy: The NCAA tournament, silly. The NIT is as exciting as watching a loved one go through drug or alcohol rehab.
Dave: NIT. They have both preseason and postseason NITs. Is there a preseason NCAA? No.
Brian: There is no question the NCAA is cooler than the NIT. The "Not Invited Tournament" is for ninth place Big East teams, like Cincinnati, and Missouri State, a school I've never even heard of that is whining that it should have been in the real tournament. Give me a break. NCAA all the way. The NIT is NOT part of March Madness!
Jim: On Tuesday, I couldn't wait to hit the sports bar to catch the first games of the NIT over a cold brew and a plate of spicy, make-your-eyes-red hot wings. Not really. Like the rest of America, I was busy ignoring this colossal waste of time and space, and watching American Idol instead.
Andy: Let me ask you a question. Did you know one day people didn't have television? Instead they would listen to programs on the radio. Well, TV eventually came along and blew radio out of the water. The NCAA tournament is our television.
Dave: In fact, I did know that, Funhouse. Thanks for asking. City College of New York won both the NCAA and NIT in 1950. CCNY was later implicated in a betting scandal. I am guessing that's intertwined with the NIT downfall.
Brian: I had no idea the NIT was once as big as the NCAA tournament. Not quite sure what happened, but that thing has definitely fell off the map.
Jim: Yes, it was back in 19-dickety-dick, when that Kaiser took away the NCAA tournament, as well as all numbers besides one and nine. Back then, basketball fans had to wear onions around their belt, which was the style of the time. Now to take the bus to a game cost a nickel, and back then nickels had pictures of Billy Packer on them. Give me five Billys for a quarter you'd say.
Andy: Nobody wins in the NIT. Instead, they're reminded of how pitiful their program has become. I'm not rooting for anybody, because anyone who roots for somebody in the NIT should not be allowed to be a functioning part of society.
Dave: No doubt about this: Rutgers has been seething ever since they saw Big East rival St. John's strut around Madison Square Garden with the ... well, whatever they give the winner of the NIT. The Scarlet Knights demand to be known as the best non-NCAA tourney team in the New York area, so far be it from me to root against any team so inspired.
Brian: Ummm ... I guess I'm rooting for Stanford to win the NIT, being a Pac-10 team and all. It really doesn't matter though. I don't think the players even care if they win the thing or not!
Jim: I am rooting for Wisconsin-Green Bay, which is the only D-I team from Wisconsin not to make the NCAA tournament. Go Fightin' Phoenix! Wait, the Phoenix didn't make the 32-team field. To heck with it. I guess if I had to pick a winner, it'd be Cincinnati, who will win it for Bob Huggins.
Andy: Instead of having regular refs, I would hire "healthy" girls from Hooters to officiate the game. And their uniforms would be a tight-fitting bikini that leaves nothing to the imagination.
Dave: Figure out a way to combine NIT basketball with Ultimate Fighting.
Brian: I'd make the NIT more appealing by making it a Survivor-type competition, where teams vote each other off, instead of playing games on the hardwood. This is the only thing that might make people watch these after-thought games.
Jim: I think it'd be cool for every team to not make the NCAA tournament to make a postseason tournament of some kind that isn't their own conference tournament. Let everybody play. I guess then it really couldn't be called the National Invitational Tournament. It would just be the National Tournament.