Third NCAA Postseason Tournament To Begin In March

There's going to be more March basketball.

The producer of some early-season tournaments announced Wednesday it will start a 16-team postseason event that will augment the NCAA and NIT.

The College Basketball Invitational will be staged this March by The Gazelle Group, based in Princeton, N.J., which runs the 2K Sports College Hoop Classic that benefits Coaches vs. Cancer and the O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic.

The NCAA invites 65 teams to its tournament and the National Invitation Tournament -- which started in 1938, a year before the NCAA -- selects another 32. The NIT reduced its field last season from 40.