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The MAC is a one-big NCAA Tournament league, and this year Western Michigan got that one bid. But that doesn't mean that WMU is the only team to participate in the college basketball postseason, after all the NCAA Tourney isn't the only pig in this race. Now, there are three other college basketball tournaments this season, with varying degrees of teams.
One of those tournaments is the CollegeInsider.com Torunament, or CIT, which is only in its sixth season. Three MAC schools are participating in this year's CIT, which is a 32-team tournament. It's a bit complicated in that the bracket isn't set in the way that the NCAA Tournament is. The first round match ups are announced and then the next rounds are determined after taking in things such as win-loss records, conference strength and strength of schedule to come up with the best match ups. In this way there are no actual seeds, and filling out a bracket beforehand is near impossible. Oh, and unlike the NCAA Tourney and the NIT, all the CIT games are hosted on campus sites with the hot schools paying a fee to host a game.
You can find out more about the CIT over at CollegeInsider.com. But the 2014 slate was announced and we can get a sense of the type of competition our MAC schools (Akron, EMU, and Ohio) will have to face in order to capture a CIT Championship. (Many of the games can be seen on CBS Sports Network).
FIRST ROUND
Monday, March 17
Holy Cross (19-13) @ Brown (15-13)
Tuesday, March 18
VMI (19-12) @ Canisius (20-12)
Wright State (20-14) @ East Carolina (17-16)
Norfolk State (19-14) @ Eastern Michigan (21-14)
Chattanooga (18-14) @ ETSU (18-15)
Columbia (19-12) @ Valparaiso (18-15)
Alabama State (19-12) @ Sam Houston State (23-10)
Portland State (17-14) @ San Diego
Wednesday, March 19
Quinnipiac (20-11) @ Yale (15-13)
Towson (23-10) @ USC Upstate (19-14)
Cleveland State (21-11) @ Ohio (23-11), 7 p.m.
Akron (21-12) @ IPFW (24-10)
Murray State (18-11) @ Missouri State (20-12)
North Dakota (17-16) @ Nebraska-Omaha (16-14)
Texas A&M Corpus Christi (17-15) @ Northern Colorado (18-13)
Pacific (15-15) @ Grand Canyon (15-14)
SECOND ROUND
March 21-22
QUARTERFINALS
March 25-27
SEMIFINALS
April 1
CHAMPIONSHIP
April 3