CBB: Don’t forget about the NIT, CIT, & CBI Brackets

We all know the big draw at this time of year is the “Big Dance”. All of the best teams are there, playing in high profile games in high profile arena’s across the country over the next few weeks. However, the serious bettor might take a greater liking to

2010-03-12

We all know the big draw at this time of year is the “Big Dance”. All of the best teams are there, playing in high profile games in high profile arena’s across the country over the next few weeks. However, the serious bettor might take a greater liking to the action in the NIT, CIT, and CBI tournaments if he or she chooses to analyze them. Sportsbook.com will of course be your home for all the action on these games. Follow the daily lines on the LIVE ODDS page.

The games in those tournaments are nothing more than glorified non-conference games, with the higher seeded teams playing at home in most cases. As such, the handicapper gets to apply many of the same strategies that they have been perfecting since the tip-off of the season some four months ago. With the thought of building our bankrolls for the main event, let’s take a look at the recent action in the undercard tournaments to see if we can uncover some winning information.

CollegeInsider.com Tournament

2010 marks the second annual CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) featuring another 16 deserving teams who didn’t get the opportunity to play in the NCAA or NIT Tournaments. The CollegeInsider.com Tournament competes with the CBI Tournament for teams. Teams are seeded and games are played on campus sites, including the championship, with a single-elimination tournament format. In the inaugural edition of the tournament last spring, no power conference schools were included, and perhaps the most well-known teams came from the Missouri Valley Conference.

In any case, here are some of the things that happened in the 2009 CIT tournament, from a betting perspective.

- Old Dominion won the tournament championship, beating Bradley on the road. The Monarchs were 3-1 ATS in their four tournament games.

- Home teams were 12-3 SU & 9-6 ATS in the CIT tournament in ’09, with every single one of them playing as a favorite.

- OVER the total was 8-6-1 in the 15 CIT games last year.

- There were distinctive breaks in the relationship between the pointspreads and the home team success last year. In CIT games with lines of -9 or more, home teams were 2-0 SU & 0-2 ATS. In games with pointspreads of 3-points or less, home teams were 4-2 SU & 3-3 ATS. In between, they were 6-1 SU & ATS.

- Despite being the biggest name conference in the CIT tournament last year, Missouri Valley teams Bradley, Drake, and Evansville combined to go just 1-5 ATS.
- Only one first round road team pulled an upset last year (Belmont at Evansville), with hosts going 7-1 SU & 5-3 ATS.

College Basketball Invitational Tournament

This year marks the third annual College Basketball Invitational and the tournament website claims the 2010 CBI is shaping up to be “even more exciting this year.” The CBI has a similar format to the CIT, 16 teams, seeded in four regions, with each game in the first three rounds played at home arenas in a single elimination format. However, the two teams eventually reaching the championship play a best-of-three series with the higher seed hosting two games should a third be necessary.

Last year, Oregon State and UTEP played for the CBI championship. After Oregon State won the first Championship Series game in Corvallis, the scene shifted to El Paso, where UTEP took the second game of the series before Oregon State emerged as CBI champs with an 81-73 road victory.

Tulsa won the ’08 championship, beating Bradley, 2-1 in the finals.

Here are some betting trends that have formed in the first two years of the College Basketball Invitational Tournament:

- Home teams were 23-11 SU but just 15-19 ATS in the CBI tournaments of ’08 & ’09. Both marks represent declines from the success of the CIT hosts.
- The CBI has been a high scoring tournament to date, with OVER the total owning a mark of 20-11-3 in the first two years.
- First round CBI games have proven highly competitive with the home teams owning a 9-7 SU edge but visitors having covered the pointspread in 11 of 16 games.

- Fortunes turn in round two of the CBI, with home teams having won seven of eight games while going 5-3 ATS.

- Favorites of 6-points or more in the first two CBI tournaments have gone 9-3 SU but 3-9 ATS.

- Home favorites of less than 3-points are an imperfect 0-5 SU & ATS in the CBI tournament over the last two years, while home underdogs are 3-0 SU & ATS.
- Power conference teams, or the “Big 6” are 9-5 SU & ATS in the CBI tourney, negating any preconceived notion that they don’t care about these second-rate tournaments. Pac 10 teams are 7-1 SU & 6-2 ATS, not counting the game in which Oregon State and Stanford went head-to-head last March.

- “D”-level conference schools (Ivy, Southern, MEAC, America East, etc) are 4-0 ATS.
- In 18 past CBI games with totals posted at 140 or higher, OVER the total is 12-3-3.

National Invitation Tournament

The National Invitation Tournament, better known as the NIT, has been around since 1938 and is the longest running postseason college basketball tournament. The NIT is twice as big as the CIT & CBI in terms of teams, with 32, and only recently did it start seeding teams in four distinct regions on the bracket. The first three rounds are all played at home team sites, before the semifinals and finals are played at historic Madison Square Garden in New York. The last two NIT champions have come from the Big Ten Conference, Penn State and Ohio State.

Here’s a look at the betting story in the NIT, dating back to the 2007 tournament, the first going back to the current format of 32 teams.

- Home teams have gone 13-3 SU in each of the last three years of first round NIT action. In the two most recent years, the ATS split was 8/8 between home & road teams. In 2007, the visitors held a 9-7 edge.

- The home court advantage is even greater in the second round of the NIT tournament, as over the last three years, hosts are 20-4 SU & 17-6-1 ATS.
- In the past three years, there hasn’t even once been a home underdog in the NIT tournament. Interestingly though, home favorites of 3-points or less are just 3-6 SU & 1-8 ATS. UNDER the total is also 7-2 in those games.

- Double-digit home favorites haven’t been a good bet either in the NIT since ’07, going 18-2 SU but 9-11 ATS.

- The best line range in which to back home favorites in the NIT is at -3.5 to -9.5 points, 35-19-1 ATS over the last three years, including 12-4 ATS a year ago.
- The “B” level conferences (Missouri Valley, Mountain West, Conference USA, WAC, Atlantic 10) have shown some distinct tendencies of late based upon the opponent they’ve faced. When on the road at “A”-conference teams, they are just 3-22 SU & 7-18 ATS over the L3 years of NIT action. When hosting “A” teams, they are 8-3 SU & 6-5 ATS. In matchups between two “B” teams, the visitor is a perfect 6-0 ATS. When hosting a lesser conference school, the “B” teams are a perfect 5-0 SU & ATS.

- Big 12 teams are just 4-10 ATS in the L3 years of NIT play. Missouri Valley teams are 3-9 ATS. Big Ten teams are 10-4 ATS.

- The semifinals and finals of the NIT are played in a neutral environment at MSG. Over the last three years, favorites in these games are just 3-6 SU & ATS, with no line exceeding 5-points.

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