The NCAA a few years back bought the NIT to settle a lawsuit. The NCAA has decided that to help make the investment more useful that it will use the NIT as an experimental lab to test out some rule variations. read more
A significant rule might play to the advantage of one team in a conference and that team would win the automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament rather than a team better suited to the national rules. The old format did not always provide a good sample. read more