College Basketball Crown Tournament: What Does It Mean For Indiana?

MADISON, Wis. – Indiana’s men’s basketball team is still in the fight to get a NCAA Tournament bid. With five games remaining that would count as Quad 1 victories, the Hoosiers still have something to fight for in that regard.

However, the predictive metric websites have forecast woe for the Hoosiers in those Quad 1 games – Indiana isn’t favored to win any of the games they have left. Indiana would have to defy the odds to win the two or three games it needs to win to become a realistic NCAA Tournament team.

Normally in years where the NCAA Tournament is off the table, attention turns to the National Invitation Tournament, the traditional landing spot for NCAA Tournament also-rans.

However, this year, there’s another tournament that Indiana fans have to consider – the College Basketball Crown.

Created by FOX Sports and AEG Global Partnerships, the College Basketball Crown will take place from March 31-April 6 in Las Vegas. It will be a single elimination, 16-team tournament played at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and T-Mobile Arena, both located just off the Las Vegas Strip. The games will take place in the days between the Elite Eight and the Final Four rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

As an Indiana fan, you might be asking yourself what the difference is between the NIT and the CBC?

The biggest difference is in its selection process and which teams get favorable treatment as far as selection is concerned. FOX started the tournament partly as a vehicle for the three main college basketball conferences it has television rights to – the Big Ten, the Big 12 and the Big East.

The NIT is broadcast by ESPN, the main competitor in the college athletics world to FOX, which meant the teams that FOX would typically have rights to during the regular season were playing on a competing network during the postseason. (The Big 12 has broadcast deals with both FOX and ESPN.)

After the NCAA Tournament teams are chosen, the Big Ten, Big 12 and Big East are guaranteed to get two teams from each conference in the CBC field.

The CBC does not list selection criteria for the tournament on its website, but a 2023 proposal for the tournament indicated that NET rankings of the best non-NCAA Tournament-qualifying teams would be used to select the automatic qualifiers from the three conferences.

FOX graphics on its college basketball broadcasts have listed Big Ten, Big 12 and Big East schools in analyst Mike DeCoursey’s first four and next four out in his bracketology with a crown logo indicating that they would be CBC-qualifying teams. That might just be an indication that those teams could be in the CBC field, and not an indication that they would be an automatic qualifier.

The rest of the field could also be comprised of additional Big Ten, Big 12 and Big East schools. Or, schools from other conferences can be chosen once the automatic qualifiers are determined.

As an Indiana fan, you might be thinking of Indiana’s non-participation when the NIT has been a possibility in recent years. In 2024, Indiana made it clear to the NIT selection committee beforehand that it would decline a bid to that tournament. Indiana last took part in the NIT in 2019.

Why would Indiana play in the CBC when it didn’t play in the NIT when given the chance?

In its original proposal, Fox said that the Big Ten, Big 12 and Big East teams would be contractually obligated to take part.

It could be interpreted to mean that Big Ten, Big 12 and Big East schools would have to appear in the CBC at the expense of appearing in the NIT. Based on the selection process the NIT has since adopted, where the ACC and SEC – ESPN-broadcast conferences – get a pair of automatic bids each, that would appear to be true.

Does that mean that Big Ten, Big 12 and Big East teams selected for the CBC would be required to appear in the tournament and cannot decline a bid under any circumstance? There are myriad problems that could come from that if teams are required to appear. The transfer portal is open by then (March 24) and what happens if a school intends to make a coaching change? How would they be compelled to participate?

The Big Ten had not yet responded by Wednesday morning to Hoosiers On SI’s inquiry about required CBC participation.

An Indiana University spokesperson said Tuesday they have received no information on the CBC and could not provide insight on whether Indiana would be required to take part if chosen.

Indiana is 14-9 and 5-7 in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers are No. 64 in the NET, the 13th-ranked Big Ten team. Indiana is one spot ahead of Iowa and two ahead of Southern California.

The creation of the CBC has caused a ripple effect on the rest of the non-NCAA Tournament postseason. The NIT, which is run by the NCAA, initially reacted in 2023 by eliminating the automatic bid for regular season champions from all Division I conferences. The NIT would include the two top non-NCAA NET ranked teams from the Power Six conferences (the Pac-12 still existed at the time).

In 2024, that plan was scrapped. In addition to the two guaranteed bids for ACC and SEC teams, the top 12 conferences would receive one guaranteed bid. In addition, regular season conference champions that average a ranking of 125 or better in the BPI, KPI, NET, KenPom, SOR, Torvik and WAB rankings would also get a guaranteed bid.

In theory, a Big Ten team like Indiana could still participate in the NIT, but it’s more likely the CBC would gobble up any Big Ten teams for its tournament.

There is no women’s basketball equivalent to the CBC.

Related stories on Indiana basketball