it barely had enough teams with a .500% record (or better) to fill the field. In part because teams are allowed to decline a NIT invite and not allowed to decline a NCAA invite. Even if the NCAA was willing to eliminate the other postseason tournaments (i.e. CBI, CIT, and Las Vegas) and had at least 64 teams with .500% record (or better), then it still doesn't guarantee that the NCAA would be able to fill the field every year without inviting teams with sub .500% records because enough eligible teams decline the invite.

Now that the NCAA owns both tournaments, there was talk about the possibility of the NIT being merged into NCAAT or the losing team of the Play-in Round/1st Round being eligible to compete in the NIT.