The National Invitation Tournament National Invitation Tournament or NIT (Spanish: National Invitational Tournament) is a college men’s basketball tournament of the U.S., organized by the NCAA. This partnership will play two tournaments a year. The first one is played in preseason (called in English Preseason NIT), and was created in 1985. The second and more important, is held since 1938 in the month of March, and final stages are played at Madison Square Garden in New York.