Sports: What does NIT stand for?

There was a huge surge of hits on this blog when this blog ran "NIT bracketology."

The traffic for that has since settled down. However, there are still occasional visits from searches for teams playing in the NIT. Interestingly, there have been a few hits for "what does NIT stand for?"

NIT stands for National Invitational Tournament.

The NIT post-season basketball tournament started in 1938. For more history, check out the history page at the NIT web page.

Eventually, the "March Madness" of the NCAA took the prestige away from the NIT. However, the NIT continued to provide an opportunity for good teams to play a few more games much as the non-BCS college football bowl games.

The NIT sued the NCAA as an anti-trust monopoly. The NCAA decided to buyout the NIT rather than continue with the trial.