Black Athletes in the Spotlight: HBCU Sports & Local Highlights
- 2023 rule gives automatic NIT bid only to regular-season champs with average ranking of 125 or better across metrics, effectively excluding many HBCUs.
- With CBI and CIT canceled, and the College Basketball Crown limited to Power Five schools, men's HBCU programs lose alternative postseason options.
- MEAC commissioner Sonja Stills says changes create fewer diverse postseason opportunities, forcing a brutal binary: win conference tournament or season ends.
The NCAA Tournament — the grand spectacle that it is — will be the only stage where HBCU basketball fans can watch men’s teams participate in postseason play.
That’s because the 2026 NIT, which previously held a spot for regular-season conference champions that did not make the NCAAs, does not include a single HBCU team in the field.
It means that SWAC regular- season champion Bethune-Cookman can’t turn to the NIT to continue its season after the Wildcats were eliminated in the conference tournament.
Unlike March Madness, the NIT is strictly an invitation-style tournament. Instead, a team has an invitation extended by the NIT selection committee.
Men’s NIT makes access for HBCUs difficult
The latest rules in 2023 created an automatic bid for a regular-season conference champion that does not make the NCAA tournament and has an average ranking of 125 or better across designated data metrics. The NCAA announced those include BPI, KPI, NET, KenPom, SOR, TOR, and WAB.
Bethune-Cookman had a NET ranking of 261. No other HBCU had an average ranking that would have positioned a team to be considered, according to the metrics.
And despite six teams declining an invitation to the NIT, the committee did not believe B-CU, or any other Division I program from the MEAC or SWAC, was worthy enough to be among the 32 teams in the bracket.
MEAC commissioner Sonja Stills previously indicated that changes to the NIT would effectively shut HBCUs out of the NIT.
“I am extremely disappointed in the decision to make such a major change that will significantly impact mid-major programs, especially HBCUs,” Stills said in a statement to HBCU Sports in 2023. “Not having an opportunity to provide feedback on a decision like this goes against our efforts to provide opportunities for all student-athletes to participate in postseason play. This will have a tremendous trickle-down effect in which more third-party promoters or entities will pop up and attempt to host postseason events.
“In addition, there will be a lack of diverse institutions participating in the NIT. The HBCUs will most likely be shut out of the equation.”
Thankfully, the WNIT has three HBCU teams in the field this year. The WBIT features SWAC regular-season champion Alabama A&M.
Other HBCU tournament options have gone away
If the NIT is unavailable, HBCUs could have turned to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament or The College Basketball Invitational.
But neither is being held.
The CBI announced last month it was cancelling the tournament. The CIT, which was last won by Norfolk State in 2024, folded its operations.
The newly created College Basketball Crown eight-team tournament is only held between Big East, Big Ten, and Big 12 teams for a $500,000 NIL prize pool.
With those tournaments off the board, the postseason ladder for HBCU basketball on the men’s side is suddenly shorter. The path now looks brutally binary: win the conference tournament and go to the NCAA tournament, or pack up the lockers and start thinking about summer workouts.
For leagues already fighting for single-bid status and limited nonconference respect, that is a harsh reality.
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