NIT Field Announced, Second Banana Battle Gets Underway

The snubbed teams like St. Mary's, Creighton, San Diego State and Penn State will get their chance to make their argument that they were deserving of an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament over Arizona, Minnesota, and well... that's about it.

The top four seeds in the NIT are San Diego State, Auburn, Creighton and Florida. The SEC packed the second tier tournament with four teams.

Penn State, one of the final teams that missed the NCAA tournament cut, ended up seeded No. 2 in Florida's bracket. The Nittany Lions start out with George Mason and could be looking at a rematch with Rhode Island. The Rams beat Penn State in the non-conference schedule and played a significant role in keeping the Nittany Lions out of the Tournament.

Here are the games for the first round:

No. 1 San Diego State-No. 8 Weber State
No. 4 Kansas State-No. 5 Illinois State
No. 3 South Carolina-No. 6 Davidson
No. 2 St. Mary's-No. 7 Washington State

No. 1 Auburn-No. 8 UT-Martin
No. 4 Tulsa-No. 5 Davidson
No. 3 Baylor-No. 6 Georgetown
No. 2. Virginia Tech-No. 7 Duquesne

No. 1 Creighton-No. 8 Bowling Green
No. 4 Kentucky-No. 5 UNLV
No. 3 New Mexico-No. 6 Nebraska
No. 2 Notre Dame-No. 7 UAB

No. 1 Florida-No. 8 Jacksonville
No. 4 Miami-No. 5 Providence
No. 3 Niagara-No.6 Rhode Island
No. 2 Penn State-No. 7 George Mason

Other things of note from the opening round: The Big East, Big 12 and Mountain West all put three teams in the NIT. The Miami-Providence game is actually going to be played in Providence because Miami's court has already been booked.