2025 NIT Odds and Predictions
All of the focus and attention this week in the college basketball world is on the NCAA Tournament, but we will have some excellent betting opportunities in the other postseason tournaments, including the NIT. We also have the CBI and the brand new College Basketball Crown, which is an NIL-based tournament that starts on March 31.
Nevertheless, the National Invitation Tournament – or the “Not Invited Tournament” as it has been called before, as a reference to teams not making the NCAA Tournament – features 32 teams and games played on campus sites until we get down to the Final Four and Championship Games, which will be at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Butler’s campus in Indianapolis.
While there are “host regions”, the games are not played there – that is just the No. 1 seed in that region. The higher seed is the home team unless there is an arena conflict or something else that moves a game.
I’ll be using the NIT games and those from the other tournaments in my daily college basketball best bets article and so will resident college basketball expert Greg Peterson. For now, let’s take a look at the field and the odds to win.
2025 NIT Bracket
2025 NIT Betting Odds
- SMU +350
- Santa Clara +600
- San Francisco +650
- UC Irvine +800
- George Mason +1000
- Stanford +1100
- Dayton +1100
- North Texas +1300
- Saint Joseph’s +2300
- Bradley +2900
- St. Bonaventure +3700
- Arkansas State +3700
- Oklahoma State +4500
- Loyola Chicago +4600
- Georgia Tech +4700
- North Alabama +5000
- Florida Atlantic +7500
- Middle Tennessee +8500
- UAB +9500
- Chattanooga +10000
- Cal State Northridge +11000
- Saint Louis +11000
- Northern Iowa +12000
- Samford +14000
- Utah Valley +14000
- Northern Colorado +15000
- Jacksonville State +15000
- Kent State +18000
- Wichita State +20000
- UC Riverside +25000
- Furman +25000
- San Jose State +25000
(odds from FanDuel Sportsbook at time of publish)
There are some really attractive and interesting prices in this tournament. Before getting into those, let’s talk more about the format and when games will be played.
2025 NIT Format
The tournament starts March 18-19, with second-round games on March 22-23. Quarterfinals for each region take place on March 25-26. Then the remaining teams go to Indianapolis for the Semifinals on April 1 and the Championship Game on April 3.
Here are the first-round games:
Tuesday, March 18
- Kent State at St. Bonaventure, 7 p.m. on ESPNU
- Jacksonville State at Georgia Tech, 7 p.m. on ESPN2
- Chattanooga at Middle Tennessee, 8 p.m. on ESPN+
- Saint Louis at Arkansas State, 9 p.m. on ESPNU
- Wichita State at Oklahoma State, 9 p.m. on ESPN2
- UC Riverside at Santa Clara, 11 p.m. on ESPNU
- Cal State Northridge at Stanford, 11 p.m. on ESPN2
Wednesday, March 19
- Dayton at Florida Atlantic, 7 p.m. on ESPN2 (note, Dayton is the higher seed, but UD Arena is being used for the First Four)
- Samford at George Mason, 7 p.m. on ESPN+
- UAB at Saint Joseph’s, 7 p.m. on ESPN+
- Furman at North Texas, 8 p.m. on ESPN+
- North Alabama at Bradley, 8 p.m. on ESPN+
- Northern Iowa at SMU, 9 p.m. on ESPN2
- Northern Colorado at UC Irvine, 10 p.m. on ESPN+
- Utah Valley at San Francisco, 11 p.m. on ESPNU
- Loyola Chicago at San Jose State, 11 p.m. on ESPN2
2025 NIT Tournament Analysis
Obviously the teams to watch closely here are UAB, who lost the AAC Championship Game on Sunday, George Mason, who lost the A-10 Championship Game on Sunday, Jacksonville State, who lost the C-USA Championship Game on Saturday, UC Irvine, who lost the Big West Championship Game on Saturday, and Utah Valley, who lost the WAC Championship Game on Saturday.
There are others that didn’t make the finals, but played on Saturday, like North Texas and Loyola Chicago.
Those are all teams who have to shake off the physical, mental, and emotional fatigue and also find a way to rally in a far less prestigious tournament. Also, the transfer portal is open already, so it is important to keep up with that and see if any teams are missing their best players.
2025 NIT Top Seeds
SMU, Dayton, San Francisco, and UC Irvine are the top seeds and the only four teams in the tournament lined in single digits. In the past, the NIT was a bit of a tough handicap because you had to guess whether or not the NCAA Tournament snubs were motivated or not. UC Irvine lost in the conference championship game, but none of the others did, so they should be excited to play more basketball.
2025 NIT Futures Predictions
Like I said, I’ll have some picks on game days in the NIT, but here are a couple of futures I find interesting:
Bradley +2900: For the third straight season, Bradley is a top-100 team for Bart Torvik and KenPom. For the fifth straight season, they failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. They won the Missouri Valley Tournament in 2020 and then COVID appeared and cancelled the event. Long story short, this is not a team terribly disappointed in the outcome to end the season, even though they lost to Drake in the MVC Finals. They won’t have played in 10 days when they open up against North Alabama, but this is a top-10 team by eFG% offense and the best 3-point shooting team in the country at 40%.
They have a good head coach in Brian Wardle, have 10 wins in games decided by six or fewer points, and rank in the top 100 in 2P% and 3P% defense. I also really like their draw in the Dayton region, as they don’t have to travel to California or Texas and George Mason has some similarities to them, but isn’t nearly as good on offense. This is also a team with a lot of seniors happy to keep playing.
North Texas +1300: Not as sexy of a price here, but I like the draw for North Texas and their style of play in a tournament like this. They play very slow, make opponents earn every single point, and have the advantage on the glass against most of this field. It is unfortunate that they are in the Dallas region against SMU, but it also means that they wouldn’t have to travel until the Final Four if they got there.
North Texas was 0-3 against Quadrant 1 opponents, so that’s a bridge we’d have to cross in the regional final against SMU or against Santa Clara or San Francisco in the Finals if they made it that far. But, they were 22-5 against everybody else and six of their eight losses were by six or fewer points, so they could’ve gone either way. The Mean Green force a lot of turnovers and are a borderline top-20 defense by eFG%.
