The College Basketball Blog: 2013 CIT Predictions

2013 CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) Predictions

History of the CIT: This is the 5^th CollegeInsider.com Tournament. The CIT was created in 2009 to be the 4^th postseason college basketball tournament. It came a year after the CBI became the first new postseason tournament in decades. In the first two years of the tournament the field was 16 teams. The field expanded to 24 teams in 2011, with 8 teams getting a bye into the 2^nd round. That format was less than ideal, and fortunately the field expanded again to 32 teams last year. This year the field will again consist of 32 teams. 

Championship History: Old Dominion beat Bradley on the road in 2009 to take the first ever CIT championship. In 2010 Missouri State beat Pacific to win the title. Santa Clara went on the road and defeated Iona to claim the 2011 championship. Last year it was Mercer surprising Utah State on the road to win the 2012 title. 

The Field: After the NCAA and NIT fields have been set, the CIT competes with the CBI for teams. This has always been the unofficial non-major tournament, or at least non-BCS tournament, and now that has actually become official. The CIT only offers invitations to teams from the 27 non-BCS conferences (including Independents). The only other requirement is that each team must have at least a .500 record overall (with the exception of the Great West Conference champ).

The CIT gives an automatic invite to the winner of the Great West Conference Tournament, as that conference does not have an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The winner of the GWC is not required to have a .500 record and this year Chicago State will be the sub-.500 team ever to play in the CIT. 

Tournament Structure: Like the CBI, every game of the CIT is played at campus sites. This obviously makes it feel a bit less like a tournament. In addition, the field is not seeded solely by strength. Teams are bracketed geographically to minimize travel (the CIT also likes to emphasize loss of “class time” as a concern). 

The thing that makes the CBI the hardest of the 4 postseason tournaments to predict is that the field is not actually seeded. After the first round, the remaining 16 teams are bracketed and seeded, but I have to guess how the field will be set if my picks are correct. This is obviously not easy to do but that’s never stopped me before. 

What I do is split the teams up into regions prior to the first round and then just work from there. I also add titles to the regions for reasons of clarity. I will seed the teams after the first round just as the tournament does. That’s the best I can do. So here are my picks. 

First Round

South

Evansville over Tennessee State

Gardner-Webb over Eastern Kentucky

Tulane over South Alabama

East Carolina over Savannah State 

East

Loyola-MD over Boston

Rider over Hartford

Kent State over Fairfield

Canisius over Elon 

Midwest

Northern Iowa over North Dakota

Youngstown State over Oakland

Illinois-Chicago over Chicago State

Wisconsin-Green Bay over Bradley 

West

Weber State over Cal-Poly

Texas-Arlington over Oral Roberts

UC-Irvine over High Point

Air Force over Hawaii 

Second Round

South

#1 Evansville over #4 Gardner-Webb

#2 East Carolina over #3 Tulane

East

#1 Loyola-MD over #4 Rider

#3 Kent State over #2 Canisius 

Midwest

#1 Northern Iowa over #4 Youngstown State

#2 Wisconsin-Green Bay over #3 Illinois-Chicago 

West

#1 Weber State over #4 Texas-Arlington

#2 Air Force over #3 UC-Irvine 

Third Round

South

#1 Evansville over #2 East Carolina 

East

#3 Kent State over #1 Loyola-MD

Midwest

#1 Northern Iowa over #2 Wisconsin-Green Bay

West

#1 Weber State over #2 Air Force

Semifinals

#1 Evansville over #3 Kent State

#1 Northern Iowa over #1 Weber State 

Finals

#1 Evansville over #1 Northern Iowa