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NAPERVILLE, ILL. -- The Great West Conference men's basketball tournament champion has been granted an automatic bid into the CollegeInsider.com Post-season Tournament (CIT).
Utah Valley University and Southern Utah University are members of the Great West Conference.
The CollegeInsider.com Post-season Tournament (CIT), which was played for the first time in March of 2009, features 16 teams not participating in the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship or the National Invitational Tournament (NIT).
The tournament is single elimination and consists of five rounds, all being played at on-campus sites, which will be determined by seeding.
The automatic qualifier bid to the Great West men's basketball conference tournament champion will automatically place that winner amongst the field of 16 teams participating in the CIT.
The agreement makes the CIT the first post-season college basketball tournament outside the NCAA tournament to agree to an automatic qualifier to any NCAA conference.
The field for the 2010 CIT will be announced on Sunday March 14, following the announcement of the fields for both the NCAA and NIT. First round action will begin on March 16. The championship game will be played on March 30.
Old Dominion defeated Bradley (in Peoria, Illinois) to win the inaugural CIT.
Utah Valley University will host the Great West Conference men's basketball tournament March 10-13 at the McKay Center.
The Great West Conference consists of 10 institutions:
- Cal Poly
- Chicago State
- Houston Baptist
- NJIT
- North Dakota
- South Dakota
- Southern Untah
- Texas Pan-American
- UC Davis
- Utah Valley
