From: don.p.del.grande@gmail.com   
      
   > And now the NIT has officially gone the way of favoring the bigger   
   conferences - auto-bid to regular season is out. Auto-bid to top 2 NET teams   
   in each of the Power 6 conferences for 12 auto-bids to power conferences and 0   
   for other conferences is in.   
      
   Not just autobids, but guaranteed first round home games.   
      
   The 12 teams that would have received the autobids in 2023, going by overall   
   records:   
   Clemson, 23-11   
   Vanderbilt, 22-15   
   Oregon, 21-15   
   North Carolina, 20-13   
   Wisconsin, 20-15   
   Oklahoma State, 20-16   
   Rutgers, 19-15   
   St. John's, 18-15   
   Seton Hall, 17-16   
   Utah, 17-15   
   Texas Tech, 16-16   
   Georgia, 16-16   
      
   There is a rumor that the NCAA did this in response to reports that Fox wanted   
   to start its own tournament and include only conferences where it controls the   
   TV rights.   
      
   Now watch the next dominoes to fall (and pardon me for mentioning "the   
   forbidden sport," but it is in context):   
   1. The Women's NIT folds, in light of the NCAA's new WBIT (which will buy out   
   and start using the WNIT name, since that is what just about everybody will be   
   calling it anyway);   
   2. The NCAA, in an attempt to "equalize" men's and women's basketball, will   
   respond with, "Since the women now don't have a third-tier tournament, we are   
   banning men's teams from playing in the CBI, and any 'mid-major' team that   
   goes rogue and plays in    
   it anyway earns its conference a two-year NCAA tournament ban, and it's very   
   easy for us to go back to the old TV money distribution system where a   
   conference gets nothing if it has no teams in the tournament."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)