NIT Stupid Move

The NIT is dropping the auto-bid for conference regular season champions that lose in their conference tournament and don't get an NCAA bid. Instead they are guaranteeing two spots to teams from each Power Six conference that can't manage to grab one of the bazillion bids those conferences get for March Madness. Reduced post-season opportunities for mid-majors, since every Power Six regular season champ will get a spot in the NCAA tourney no matter what.

https://www.midmajormadness.com/2023/10/27/23935250/the-nit-mens-basketball-tournament-made-changes-that-nobody-asked-for

I agree with you and the concern should absolutely be that this is a test run for what could happen at the NCAAT level. Seeing what's happened with CFB and realignment over the past year, nothing should surprise us anymore - even violating the sanctity of the NCAAT.

That said, this won't really negatively impact the WCC as it currently exists. In theory, it would make it slightly easier for WCC teams to get into the NIT (the odds of the WCC regular season champ not being an NCAAT lock or at the very least an NIT lock are remote). A quick look of last year's tournament suggests that 5 to 8 autobids would be in jeopardy under the new format. That's 5 to 8 more at-large bids for teams in the 60/70/80 NET range, so a team like BYU probably gets a look last year that they wouldn't have had otherwise.

But yeah. Overall horrible change which aligns perfectly with the greedy decisions made at the D1 level over the past few years.