ARLINGTON, Texas – Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Commissioner Brian Thornton was one of two new members that have been added to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) committee as announced by the NCAA. Thornton and Morgan State University Vice President and Director of Athletics Dena Freeman-Patton both officially joined the eight-member tournament committee on Tuesday.
 
The 2024 championship will mark the 86th edition of the postseason men’s NIT. Selections, pairings and the bracket will be announced on Sunday, March 17, with games beginning Tuesday, March 19. The NIT semifinals and championship will be played April 2 and 4 at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.
 
Since Thornton was named commissioner of the WAC in November of 2021, the conference has risen to finish in the 11th slot out of the 32 Division I men’s basketball leagues and independents according to the Kenpom.com ranking of conferences at the conclusion of the 2022-23 season. The WAC finished last season as the number two rated mid-major conference in the country according to the NCAA NET, which is the primary metric used by the selection committee to seed the annual NCAA Tournament. A total of four WAC member men’s basketball teams competed in 2023 postseason tournaments, highlighted by Utah Valley reaching the semifinal round of the NIT in Las Vegas and Grand Canyon representing the conference as its automatic qualifier in the NCAA Tournament.
 
The 2022-23 campaign marked the debut of the revolutionary WAC Résumé Seeding System that is used to seed the WAC Basketball Tournaments. Developed by Thornton, WAC Associate Commissioner of Basketball Drew Speraw and Ken Pomeroy of www.kenpom.com, the seeding system employs an algorithm that is based on performance throughout an entire regular season and rewards WAC members who face stronger schedules. The system is responsible for seeding the top eight teams for the conference tournament after those teams qualify for the field based on the final regular-season WAC standings.
 
ABOUT THE WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE

With its conference headquarters located in Arlington, Texas, the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) has enjoyed longstanding success in collegiate athletics since its formation in 1962 and is currently comprised of 11 full-time member institutions – Abilene Christian University; California Baptist University; Grand Canyon University; Seattle University; Southern Utah University: Stephen F. Austin State University; Tarleton State University; The University of Texas at Arlington; The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley; Utah Tech University and Utah Valley University.
 
Presently, the WAC crowns champions in 19 sports – nine men’s and 10 women’s championships. In 1995, the WAC became the first conference nationwide to have an exclusive broadcast contract with ESPN for football and basketball games, forming a partnership that continues to the present day with more than 500 WAC-affiliated live games and events available annually on ESPN’s digital and linear platforms. WAC member institutions have won a total of 35 team national championships since the conference’s inception.