WVU basketball suffered a 20-point loss to BYU in their opening game at the Big 12 Tournament on Wednesday, bringing their season to a close. Well, maybe bringing their season to a close.
There are options to play in the postseason outside of the NCAA Tournament. The newest is the College Basketball Crown, offering an eight-team field in Las Vegas with NIL opportunities and a mostly Power 5 field. Meanwhile, the more traditional NIT is also still a viable option – current WVU head coach Ross Hodge took North Texas to the semifinals of the NIT last season, while Honor Huff won it as a player with Chattanooga.
Fans have been debating since Wednesday's loss as to whether the Mountaineers should accept a postseason bid, but it's also possible that the WVU will be snubbed for one of these postseason tournaments just like they were with the NCAA Tournament last season.
Why the West Virginia Mountaineeers could miss the College Basketball Crown?
Well, the College Basketball Crown started with 16 teams last season. This year, it shrunk the size of the field to just eight teams. The tournament offers two auto bids to the top two Big East, Big Ten, and Big 12 teams that miss the NCAA Tournament, and there are two at-large bids available. Here's where it gets tricky.
The Crown determines those auto bids based on NET Rankings. WVU is currently ranked 11th in the Big 12 in NET at 60th overall, and eight conference teams are projected to make the NCAA Tournament field. That leaves two teams, Cincinnati at 46th and Baylor at 51st, above the Mountaineers in the NET Rankings.
That means WVU would have to hope for either the Bears or the Bearcats to decline their invite, or they'd have to hope the Crown offers one of the two at-large bids to the Mountaineers. Now, WVU defeated Cincinnati twice. It finished ahead of both Baylor and Cincinnati in the Big 12 standings and owns more Quad 1 wins than both. But this is how the process works, and a despite the fact it would be a glaring snub, it is a possibility.
What about the NIT?
WVU can't go to the NIT if they decline a Crown invite, but are welcome to do so if the tournament snubs them.
Now, the NIT is starting to be considered a step below the Crown, and always carried a stigma. But it does offer an opportunity for more home games (and revenue) provided they earn a high seed, and for more practices for the freshmen on the team. It also gives a potential prize to play or to finish the season on a high note.
That being said, Hodge might want to get on with the start of his offseason, and the NIT is becoming viewed as more of a mid-major tournament these days – though Georgia Tech did play in it last season.
For now, WVU will need to wait and see if TCU and UCF can keep themselves in the NCAA field, if Cincinnati or Baylor decline bids to the Crown, and how the rest of the March Madness bubble shakes out.