NCAA.com | March 14, 2016 National Invitation Tournament: Monmouth, St. Bonaventure, South Carolina and Valparaiso highlight field Share INDIANAPOLIS -- Monmouth, St. Bonaventure, South Carolina and Valparaiso highlight the 32-team National Invitation Tournament field released today. The field features 22 teams with at least 20 wins, a record 15 automatic qualifiers and representation from 24 of the 32 Division I conferences. First round play is scheduled for Tuesday, March 15 and Wednesday, March 16, with the second round running March 17-21. Quarterfinals will be held on March 22 and 23 and four teams will advance to New York City for the semifinals on Tuesday, March 29. The NIT will conclude with the championship game on Thursday, March 31. The semifinal and championship games will be played at New York’s historic Madison Square Garden for the 79th year. First round action, on campus sites, features number one seeds Monmouth, St. Bonaventure, South Carolina, and Valparaiso hosting Bucknell, Wagner, High Point and Texas Southern respectively. Other first round games include UAB at Brigham Young, IPFW at San Diego State, Florida at North Florida, New Mexico State at St. Mary’s (California), Princeton at Virginia Tech, Long Beach State at Washington, Akron at Ohio State, Belmont at Georgia, Alabama at Creighton, Houston at Georgia Tech, Hofstra at George Washington and Davidson at Florida State. St. Bonaventure is making its 16th appearance in the National Invitation Tournament, the most of any school in the 2016 field. A total of four teams in the 2016 field appeared in the NIT in 2015. “This was a very challenging selection process for a number of reasons and may be the most challenging since I’ve been a part of this process,” said Reggie Minton, chair of the NIT Selection Committee. “The record number of institutions which automatically qualified for the NIT gave us only 17 spots to fill at-large and there were considerably more than 17 teams that were worthy of consideration.” “We are excited about the field we have and are looking forward to an outstanding tournament beginning Tuesday.” NIT games are being televised by ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3. Additional NIT information can also be found on www.NCAA.com/NIT. 2016 NIT AUTOMATIC QUALIFIERS Conference School Record NIT App. NIT Record Last App. Atlantic Sun North Florida 22-11 First Appearance Big South High Point 21-10 2 0-1 2014 Colonial Hofstra 24-9 5 2-4 2007 Conference USA UAB 26-6 12 14-11 2010 Horizon Valparaiso 26-6 3 0-2 2012 Metro Atlantic Monmouth 27-7 First Appearance Mid-American Akron 26-8 6 2-5 2012 Mountain West San Diego St. 25-9 6 5-5 2009 Northeast Wagner 22-10 3 0-2 2002 Ohio Valley Belmont 20-11 3 2-2 2014 Patriot Bucknell 17-13 3 1-2 2015 Southwestern Texas Southern 18-14 2 0-1 2011 Summit IPFW 24-9 First Appearance West Coast St. Mary’s (CA) 27-5 5 3-4 2015 Western Athletic New Mexico St. 23-10 5 2-4 2000 2016 NIT AT-LARGE BIDS School Conference 2016 NIT App. NIT History Last App. Alabama Southeastern 18-14 14 24-16 2015 BYU West Coast 23-10 13 15-9 2013 Creighton Big East 18-14 11 5-10 2009 Davidson Atlantic 10 20-12 7 3-6 2014 Florida Southeastern 19-14 10 11-11 2009 Florida St. Atlantic Coast 19-13 10 13-9 2014 George Washington Atlantic 10 23-10 6 1-5 2015 Georgia Southeastern 19-13 13 12-12 2015 Georgia Tech Atlantic Coast 19-14 8 8-7 2003 Houston American 22-9 10 5-9 2006 Long Beach St. Big West 20-14 8 2-7 2013 Ohio St. Big Ten 20-13 9 18-7 2008 Princeton Ivy 22-6 6 7-4 2002 South Carolina Southeastern 24-8 12 21-9 2009 St. Bonaventure Atlantic 10 22-8 16 17-16 2002 Virginia Tech Atlantic Coast 19-14 13 24-10 2011 Washington Pac-12 18-14 8 3-7 2013