2010 College Basketball Invitational Tournament

That's right, along with March Madness comes the 2010 College Basketball Invitational Tournament, which is set to take place between March 16 and April 2, 2010.  Sixteen teams will square off in the brackets, with First Round games taking place on March 16 and 17.  In the tradition of the tournament, games will take place in a number of college arenas around the United States, with games in this year's College Basketball Invitational Tournament taking place at Saint Louis, Akron, OH, EKU, Princeton, Oregon State, Morehead State, and Long Island's Hofstra University.  Once again, this year's tournament is marketed and sponsored by the Gazelle Group of Princeton, NJ.  The tournament promises to be an exciting one.  This will be the third year for this particular event, which pits Division I teams against each other, should they not receive invitations from either the NCAA Tournament or the NIT Tournament.

This tournament is structured to have First Round, Quarterfinal, and Semifinal games be single elimination, with the Championship game being a Best of 3 series.  Quarterfinals for this years tournament will take place on March 22, with Semifinal play occurring on March 24.  The Championship series will have games played on three nights, March 29, March 31, and April 2, should the Championship series take 3 games.

First Round play will see Saint Louis taking on Indiana State, Akron facing off against Green Bay, VCU going against George Washington, and EKU (Eastern Kentucky University) and Charleston, Princeton facing Dunquesne, IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis) meeting Hofstra, Morehead State and Colorado State facing off, and finally Oregon State and Boston University rounding out the final First Round games.

The College Basketball Invitational Tournament is one of the many post-season collegiate basketball tournaments occurring in March.  The primary tournament is the NCAA Basketball Tournament, but many are not aware that there are currently four tournaments in operation during this period of time.  In addition to the NCAA Tournament, who selects 64 teams, the NIT Tournament take 32 teams, the College Basketball Invitational takes 16 teams, and the Collegeinsider.com Tournament takes an additional 16 teams.  This means that 128 men's college basketball teams will have the experience of postseason tournament play.  Many of these additional tournaments were started for this particular reason.  Due to the number of teams playing in the events, games are spaced out more to avoid interrupting the education of players.

So who will be crown the CIB Champion this year?  Will Oregon State go for another win, or will one of the other schools want it more?  Tulsa, who won in the inaugural tournament, are not involved this year, so a new champion is likely.  Games will commence on Tuesday, March 16, 2010, with the tournament drawing to a close on either March 31 or April 2.

College Basketball Invitational Tournament

Here is the updated 2009 College Basketball Invitational Tournament Brackets:

This website is dedicated to the College Basketball Invitational, otherwise known as CBI, or The CBI Tournament.  The College Basketball Invitational is a tournament for teams who did not get a bid to the NCAA Tournament.  The CBI competes with the N.I.T. for teams to play in the tournament.

Here are some frequently asked questions about the College Basketball Invitational:

How many teams participate in the CBI Tournament?

16 teams participate in the College Basketball Invitational.  The higher seeded teams get to play on their home court in a single elimination basketball tournament.  When the field gets narrowed down to 2 teams they play the best two out of three games to determine the champion.

How long has the College Basketball Invitational been around?

The CBI has been around since 2007.

Who won the 2008 College Basketball Invitational Tournament?

Tulsa.  Bradley finished second.

Who started the CBI and who runs it?

The Gazelle Group.

Are there any good sports message boards where people can talk about basketball games?

Yes. SECfanatics.com is a great SEC sports message board where you can talk about all NCAA basketball games.

What teams are in the 2009 College Basketball Invitational?

Here's The 2009 CBI Tournament Schedule & Bracket
Tuesday, March 17

Northeastern @ Wyoming - Tues @ 9 pm ET - HDNet
UTEP @ Nevada - Tues @ 11 pm ET
Wednesday, March 18

St. John's @ Richmond - 7 pm ET
Buffalo @ Wichita State - 8 pm ET - HDNet
Vermont @ Wisconsin-Green Bay - 8 pm ET
Charleston @ Troy - 8 pm ET
Houston @ Oregon State - 10 pm ET - HDNet
Boise State @ Stanford - 10 pm ET

Monday, March 23

CBI Quarterfinals (teams & locations TBD) - HDNet
Wednesday, March 25

CBI Semifinals (teams & locations TBD) - HDNet 
 

2009 CBI Championship Series
March 30 - April 3

CBI Championship Series (teams & locations TBD) - HDNet

Tickets for the College Basketball Invitational are available for purchase.  Buy College Basketball Invitational tickets in advance so you'll make sure you get them.   For more information about the CBI, visit this link:

http://www.gazellegroup.com/events/cbi/index_main.htm