2024 NIT Odds and Predictions

The NCAA Tournament draws all of the attention and all of the fanfare, but there will be some good college basketball betting opportunities in the 2024 NIT. Unfortunately, the NIT looks a lot different this season. In the past, regular season champions that didn’t win their conference tournaments served as automatic qualifiers, but tournament officials did away with that to bring programs with bigger backing into the field.

There are 32 teams in the field, which is missing some of the top schools, like St. John’s, Oklahoma, and Pittsburgh, who all missed out on the NCAA Tournament. The other weird thing about the NIT is that the college basketball transfer portal opened on Monday Mar. 18, so there will be some teams that are a little shorthanded.

 

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2024 NIT Bracket

2024 NIT Odds

Wake Forest +600

Ohio State +700

Villanova +800

Indiana State +800

Cincinnati +900

Seton Hall +1000

Butler +1200

Utah +1400

Iowa +1600

Virginia Tech +2000

Princeton +2200

Providence +2500

UNLV +3000

UCF +3500

Bradley +3500

North Texas +4500

Kansas State +4500

Georgia +5000

Xavier +5000

San Francisco +5500

LSU +5500

VCU +6500

Boston College +6500

Appalachian State +9000

UC Irvine +10000

South Florida +10000

SMU +10000

Minnesota +10000

Richmond +13000

Loyola Chicago +13000

Saint Joseph’s +25000

Cornell +25000

2024 NIT Format

Games in the first round, second round, Sweet 16, and Elite Eight will be played on campus sites before moving to Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis for the Final Four and Championship Game. Keep an eye out for arena conflicts that could lead to a higher seed going on the road. It happens more frequently in the CBI, CIT, and lesser tournaments, but it can happen in the NIT if there is a concert or a women’s NCAA Tournament game.

2024 NIT Tournament Analysis

Some of the top snubs for the NCAA Tournament opted out to “focus on the transfer portal”, but Seton Hall, Indiana State, Providence, and others did not. Coaches will say all the right things about being excited to play, but not all teams will be invested or excited in the early rounds. After a game or two, though, then it becomes about winning the whole thing and you can throw the motivational angles out the window.

This year’s NIT doesn’t feature nearly as many small-conference teams with the automatic qualifiers no longer considered for regular season conference champs, so that’s a bummer, but it does change the handicapping angles. Many of those small-conference teams had played awful schedules, so there was a little more guesswork involved on that front.

There are still some unique travel spots, like UNLV going all the way to Princeton, San Francisco going to Cincinnati, or UC Irvine playing in elevation against Utah.

2024 NIT Top Seeds

Wake Forest is the favorite at +600, but they got a really tough game against Appalachian State. The Mountaineers beat James Madison twice during the regular season. That’s hardly a gimme game for the Demon Deacons. Villanova and Indiana State get interesting assignments early as well.

Ohio State seems to have the best draw as a No. 2 seed, which is reflective in their price at +700. The Big East is really well-represented here with several high seeds and several teams in the field. If Butler can somehow make the FInal Four, Hinkle Fieldhouse is their home venue, so they’d likely have an advantage and they do start there against Minnesota.

2024 NIT Futures Predictions

I think Providence at +2500 is really interesting. If Kim English can get his team over the disappointment of missing out on the NCAA Tournament, I like their draw a good amount, especially with a very familiar No. 1 seed in Seton Hall in their bracket. English seems like the kind of motivator to get his team invested in this thing.

Appalachian State at +9000 intrigues me, too. The loss to Arkansas State was devastating, but they’ve had a lot of time to get over it. They stay in-state to play Wake Forest in the first game and they’re a legitimately good team with outstanding defensive numbers.

Of the favorites, Indiana State has a really nice path and runs a very efficient offense. As long as Josh Schertz can keep his team from being too down about not making the NCAA Tournament, this is a team that can make a really deep run at +800 and their draw is very reasonable.

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