‘Inexcusable’: NCAA Extends, Then Retracts, NIT Invite to South Alabama

Hours after appearing alongside embattled NCAA men’s Tournament selection committee chair Bubba Cunningham on national television Sunday, committee vice chair and Sun Belt Conference commissioner Keith Gill became part of a controversial snubbing of one of his own conference members. 

South Alabama head men’s basketball coach Richie Riley told AL.com that Gill and NCAA vice president Dan Gavitt called him to extend an invite to the second-tier National Invitation Tournament (NIT) around 9:30 p.m. CT on Sunday night—then rescinded the invite just over an hour later, after Riley had already told his team.

“Gill said, ‘We’ve had something happen; do you guys want to be in the NIT?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, it’d be awesome,’” Riley said. “And so we talked for a few more minutes. I said ‘This is 100%, we’re in, right?’ And they said ‘Yeah, congratulations. I’m glad you were able to get in.’”

According to Riley, the invitation came because UC Riverside, one of the initially announced teams in the NIT bracket, had already accepted a slot in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI), a non-NCAA affiliated tournament. However, UC Riverside reportedly was unaware of its inclusion in the NIT and quickly worked to get out of its CBI obligation upon seeing its name in the bracket. 

CBS Sports, citing an unnamed source close to UC Riverside’s program, reported that the team “had not had any communication” with the NIT or the Big West conference about a formal invite before the bracket was unveiled.

Once UC Riverside got out of its CBI commitment (NCAA rules prohibit teams from entering multiple postseason tournaments), the NIT honored its initial inclusion of the Highlanders—which meant South Alabama was out of the 32-team field.

“[Gill and Gavitt] call back, whatever time it was, 10:45, 11,” Riley told AL.com. “Dan’s like ‘No, UC Riverside is back in. I hate that we had to do this.’”

Front Office Sports was unable to reach Riley for comment by publication time Monday evening.

The NIT issued a statement from Gavitt on Monday calling the South Alabama invitation “premature.” 

“We understand the emotional impact this confusion created and sincerely apologize to South Alabama, head coach Richie Riley and all the student-athletes for the error,” Gavitt said.

That message did not sit well with Riley, who ripped it in a post on X, calling the apology “meaningless.”

“What they did to us last night is inexcusable!” he wrote. “These guys in our locker room don’t deserve this and it’s sad your idea of making it right is a copy and paste apology!”

Riley later reposted several messages of support on X, including one claiming that Gavitt’s statement was AI-generated.

The Sun Belt also released a statement from Gill, saying South Alabama was “prematurely contacted” as a “potential replacement team.”

“We regret the emotional impact this chain of events had on South Alabama’s student-athletes and want to congratulate Sun Belt Coach of the Year Richie Riley and his team on a historic season, including a Sun Belt regular-season co-championship,” the statement said.

The Sun Belt Conference did not immediately respond to a Front Office Sports request for comment. The NCAA referred FOS to Gavitt’s earlier statement when contacted.

South Alabama went 21-11 and finished as Sun Belt regular-season co-champions in a four-way tie with Troy, Arkansas State, and James Madison as all four teams went 13-5 in conference play. 

Troy won the conference tournament, securing the league’s auto-bid into the NCAA men’s tournament, and got a No. 14 seed in the Midwest region. The Trojans will face heavily favored No. 3 seed Kentucky in the first round on Friday. Arkansas State, which lost to Troy in the Sun Belt tournament championship game, was one of the 32 originally announced teams in the NIT field.

South Alabama athletic director Joel Erdmann also released a statement Monday calling the NIT invitation fiasco “avoidable” but that the department “appreciates” the NCAA’s apology. Erdmann also expressed support for Riley and his team, saying they plan to hang a banner commemorating the Jaguars’ co-regular season Sun Belt championship.

Riley, who just finished his seventh season as South Alabama’s head coach, told AL.com his team takes “zero” name-image-likeness money and had already decided against participating in any non-NCAA postseason tournament, so their season is over.