Today is a big day in NIT culture. As regular readers know, there’s a debate between whether the Sun Bowl or the Gator Bowl is the NIT of college football. Each is among bowl season’s oldest bowls. Each generally features two pretty-good teams (if not actually-good). Each is in a city that you have probably never visited (El Paso, Jacksonville). Each has suffered a few indignities through its life (the Gator Bowl was briefly named just the “TaxSlayer Bowl;” Pitt has played in two Sun Bowls this millennium and lost 3-0 and 14-13, which is a very Pitt thing to do). Each has experienced some glorious moments (Woody Hayes punching the Clemson dude happened in the 1978 Gator Bowl, Notre Dame winning its second bowl game in 16 years happened in the 2010 Sun Bowl, Bobby Bowden ended his career in the 2010 Gator Bowl, Wikipedia says the 1974 Sun Bowl is “one of three football games to be nicknamed the ‘Fog Bowl.’”) Each has caused tragedy (the 1949 Sun Bowl told Lafayette College they wouldn’t allow a Black player to play, the 1963 Gator Bowl afterparty was ended by a fire that killed 22). Neither is a perfect NIT, but having a manufactured debate like this one is useful because you wouldn’t believe the number of shitheads who say things like “oH, tHe BoCa RaToN bOwL iS cOlLeGe FoOtBaLl’S nIt.” It’s not. The Boca Raton Bowl is college football’s Vegas 16. Beautiful in its own way. But no NIT.
Anyway, Gator Bowl happens today. Kicks in a little bit. Sun Bowl got canceled this year because of Covid. So it’s a big chance for the Gator Bowl to make a statement, and with a mediocre (but ranked!) NC State team playing 4-6 Kentucky, it appears quite a statement might be made.
Other NIT notes for today (there’s a ton of NIT-relevant action today, so we’re leaving some fringier NIT-relevant games out—our apologies, but we thought it’d be helpful to focus on the biggest and brightest):
- Lipscomb upset Liberty in the first half of a two-game set in Nashville, shaking up the Atlantic Sun title race and thereby the NIT automatic bid picture. There was no bigger news in sports yesterday.
- Marshall went down in Ruston while Western Kentucky triumphed in Charlotte, giving the Hilltoppers at least a momentary edge in Conference USA.
- Cleveland State continued to keep pace with Wright State in their likely-doomed effort to keep the HoLo’s auto-bid streak alive.
- Kentucky’s playing in Stark Vegas in a game each team desperately needs to buoy their NIT hopes. Some are calling this the biggest game of John Calipari’s career. Nobody is calling it the biggest game of Ben Howland’s career. But that’s only because people don’t care about Ben Howland’s career that much.
- St. Bonaventure plays at Richmond in an A-10 battle that will shake the NIT rafters. Or won’t. If Richmond wins a close one it doesn’t really change either team’s picture.
- Davidson goes to VCU, with each team trying to claw into the thick of NIT-land but from opposite directions. There has never been a bigger day in the city of Richmond since the last time VCU and Richmond were both playing at home against NIT bubble teams, which might have happened within the last few weeks.
- Tulsa visits Cincinnati. Can Frank Haith build some momentum? Can that goober who coaches Cincinnati right the ship? (Sorry goober, I’m forgetting your name, is it John Brennan? *Checks.* Ooh…I was close.) The world waits.
- Michigan State plays at Nebraska, and while I’m sure there’s a margin by which Sparty can win that would pull them out of our projected NIT bracket, it’d be a lot more fun if Fred Hoiberg got his banner win in Lincoln.
- It’s time for Seton Hawk’s Pro Skater to come back down the halfpipe, and a visit from reeling Butler is the perfect occasion. But…will they do it? They’ve tricked us before.
- Act II of Marshall/Louisiana Tech and WKU/Charlotte goes down, and we’ve got a neat little crossover game involving a C-USA team with North Texas playing Loyola up in Chicago. America’s conference.
- Act II of Liberty/Lipscomb is also on the docket. Does anyone know who replaced Casey Alexander at Lipscomb? Does that person’s head also look like a basketball disguised as a head?
- In a similar script to Davidson/VCU, Wichita State goes to Oxford to play Kermit Davis’s Mississippi Mississippees. It’s very hard to refer to Mississippi by either of its normal names because both of them are rooted in slavery. Damn you, University of Mississippi.
- And in the NIT GAME OF THE DAY…just kidding. We’ve probably covered whichever that is already. But Marquette does play at Georgetown and a loss by Marquette stands to immolate that fanbase emotionally. We can’t wait.
