It turns out money can heal any wound.
The NCAA decided to purchase both the pre- and postseason NIT Tournaments, ending an anti-trust suit brought against it by the operating members of the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association, which runs both tournaments. The NCAA spent $40.5 million on the purchase as well as a $16 million settlement to end litigation.
NCAA president Myles Brand and John Sexton, president of New York University, one of the five schools that make up the MIBA, announced the agreement in a press conference August 17. Both men seemed extremely pleased with the outcome, as Sexton proclaimed it a “victory without defeat.”
NYU, Fordham University, Wagner College, Manhattan College, and St. Johns University—all of which are NCAA members—made up the MIBA, which will now disband.
“We’ve now unified postseason basketball,” Brand said. “We believe that this is good for the game, we believe that it will provide a continuity throughout the game—especially for our fans.”
In November, Duke will participate in the 2005 preseason NIT, which Brand assured “will go on as planned.”
Brand said many of the details of the NCAA operation of the newly acquired tournaments have yet to be worked out, but he and Sexton both stressed the importance of keeping the NIT in New York. Sexton said the 40-team postseason event will greatly benefit from its new ownership.
“The time has come to move this tournament to a new level,” Sexton said. “By putting the formidable expertise, commitment, assets and knowledge of the NCAA behind this tournament, what we’ve done is to take a New York icon and given it a chance to be something even better.”
The purchase and settlement ends a lawsuit which was brought against the NCAA in 2001, but did not go to trial until August 1 of this year. The NIT’s case focused primarily on a NCAA bylaw that required teams to accept their invitation to the NCAA postseason tournament or not participate in postseason play. Lawyers for the NIT argued that this rule was a deliberate attempt by the NCAA to devastate the tournament which had at one time been the preeminent postseason invitational.
Most of the trial proceedings had taken place by the time the agreement was reached, including testimony from head coaches Bobby Knight of Texas Tech and John Calipari of Memphis in support of the NIT. Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski was slated to appear as a witness for the NCAA had the trial continued.
By reaching a settlement, the NCAA was able to keep its requirement that teams attend its tournament if invited, eliminating the possibility of college basketball’s postseason scenario turning into that of college football. Some observers had feared that if the rule was overturned, competing postseason tournaments would result in multiple teams claiming to be the national champions.
With the NCAA gaining control and the MIBA gaining wealth, the settlement was mutually viewed as a win-win situation. Both parties were complimentary of the other and excited by the agreement, despite the sometimes bitter tone in the courtroom.
“It’s a great day for basketball, college basketball, New York basketball but most of all it is a great day for higher education,” Sexton said.
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