With the NCAA tournament looming, the BYU basketball team will be left out of the field of 68 teams. They didn’t play well enough to belong.
However, the Cougars season isn’t over. The Y wasn’t good enough to be one of the 68, but they were good enough to be among the field of 32 after the 68 — the National Invitation Tournament.
The NIT isn’t exactly what any team is looking for at the start of the season, but it still has it’s prestige. Prestige in a “who’s the 69th best team in America” sense. While BYU is playing for 69th instead of a National Championship, it is only natural to grasp for silver linings.