College basketball’s 2019 National Invitation Tournament (NIT) final game pitting the Texas Longhorns against the Lipscomb University Bisons was played on April 4th at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. I watched a portion of the second half on television and although the game wasn’t a blowout, Texas was in command for much of the evening and ended up winning. What did manage to catch my eye, however, was the number of empty seats–actually sections–for the deciding game of a long-running major college basketball tournament in the nation’s largest city. You could almost hear crickets at the NIT finale.
The attendance was announced at 4,051, and maybe that’s accurate. It’s a small gathering made to look even smaller inside a 20,000 seat arena. I told a friend the last time I can remember seeing Madison Square Garden that empty for a basketball game was 41 years ago when two CUNY schools, Brooklyn College and Hunter College, hooked up for a preliminary game before an NBA contest. I felt kind of bad for the kids as one of the main selling points of an invitation to the NIT is a chance to play at Madison Square Garden if you reach the semifinals.
But why was this game played before such a sparse crowd?
THE MATCHUP: BIG FOOTBALL SCHOOL VS. MID-MAJOR
Let’s face it: The University of Texas at Austin fields strong teams in a multitude of sports, but is primarily known athletically as a football school. Sure, they’ve had top NBA players like Kevin Durant and LaMarcus Aldridge don their burnt orange basketball uniforms and the football program has seen better days, but the school’s athletic reputation is a product of its past successes on the gridiron.
Lipscomb University, located in Nashville Tennessee, is a relatively small school with an enrollment of about 4,500, and its athletic programs were granted approval for a move to Division 1 only 20 years ago . Even if every student at the University were transported to the NIT final game and joined those who showed up, Madison Square Garden would have still been less than half full. And the announced attendance would not have filled up Lipscomb’s on-campus arena, with its seating capacity of 5,000.
They play a good brand of ball at Lipscomb, but only the most avid followers of the sport know much about them. One could have made a stronger argument for the Bisons to receive an at-large bid to the 2019 NCAA Tournament than for some of the larger schools that actually got one. Texas had some traveling support, but it’s difficult to imagine Lipscomb had much, nor is it likely they have a large alumni presence in the New York City metro area.
NO LOCAL FLAVOR
Local entry Hofstra University was eliminated in the first round by North Carolina State. Big East entry Georgetown played their first-round game before a raucous crowd on campus but lost to Harvard. Another Big East squad, Providence College, lost at home in the first round to Arkansas. Xavier University from Cincinnati, a local in conference affiliation only, lost in the second round to Texas.
At the conclusion of the first round of the 2019 NIT, the closest surviving school to New York City geographically was Boston’s Harvard University, who lost in the second round. The other two schools to qualify for the semifinals and a trip to NYC were Wichita State and Texas Christian. So the onus was on these schools to convince supporters to travel for a tournament viewed by many as merely a consolation prize after not securing a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
THE TOURNAMENT’S SHRINKING REPUTATION
In 2018, The University of Georgia declined an invitation to participate in the NIT as the team’s head coach had just been relieved of his duties. In 2016, Louisiana State University did the same. The expansion of the NCAA Tournament to 68 teams leaves fewer options for the NIT, and the decision to automatically include regular-season conference winners who fail to qualify for the NCAA Tournament (by NOT winning its conference tourney), adds more non-traditional basketball powers to the NIT bracket. In 2016, the NIT final game featured George Washington University and Valparaiso, one for alums and hoops junkies only. At least they drew 7,000 fans with many making the short trip from the D.C. area.
By contrast, in 1971, Georgia Tech actually turned down an NCAA Tournament Invitation to play in the NIT, with players opting to compete for a chance to play at Madison Square Garden–still spanking new at the time–instead of playing in the then 25-team NCAA Tournament almost certain to be dominated by UCLA, which it was.
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?
Madison Square Garden is not a venue accustomed to sporting events with small crowds. Even the New York City Public School Athletic League basketball finals used to draw decent crowds there before moving elsewhere. The building is full on most nights when the Knicks and Rangers play there, regardless of the quality of the home team. With the top basketball players from high school hanging around the college scene for one year only, college basketball has seen a decline in attendance in recent years.
We may be coming to a time where the National Invitation Tournament becomes a showcase for the mid-major as parity continues to sweep the nation, a trend that will only accelerate if the “one and done” rule for incoming college freshmen is rescinded. That wouldn’t be a bad thing, even as we’ve seen schools like George Mason and Loyola reach the NCAA Division 1 Final Four recently. Even with those aberrations, only a handful of the 350-plus NCAA Division 1 schools having a shot at winning that tournament in a given year.
If a major venue like Madison Square Garden can live with the possibility of small turnouts to its portion of the tournament, it will continue to host, and the chance to come to NYC and play there will continue to be a huge deal for the kids from smaller schools. Otherwise, other venues, including on-campus arenas, may have to be considered.
The good news is that given the recent attendance struggles, we won’t have to worry about the NIT’s Final Four being held in a football stadium.
