NIT as a post-season "safety net"

This year's NIT will have 32 teams (as opposed to 40 the previous years). On top of that, this is the 2nd year the NIT will hand an automatic bid to the regular season conference champions who do not get an NCAA bid. This is a great idea by the NCAA and the NIT people. That way a team gets rewarded with guaranteed post-season play by winning their regular season conference. Great idea!.

This means that fewer "bcs" teams will get a chance to play in the post-season NIT, and this is a good thing because a number of them had taken NIT for granted or dissed the NIT or stumbled their way through it. Now they have to really earn it.

So let's look at some NIT "safety net" bid candidates. NIT is their post-season "Safety net" if they don't get an NCAA invite. These are teams leading their conferences (or they have a chance to win the regular season championship), but they are not likely to get an at-large bid.
You will see some of these teams in the post-season NIT:

Vermont or Albany

East Tennessee State or Belmont

Rhode or UMass or Xavier

Weber State

Winthrop or High Point

Long Beach State or CSF

VCU or ODU or Hostra or Drexel

Wright State (Butler would get an at-large)

Utah Valley State (although I don't know if the Independents count as far as NIT automatic bids)

The Ivy League gives their champion the automatic NCAA bid. I do not know if the 2nd place teams gets an automatic NIT bid

Marist or Siena or Niagara

Akron, or Kent State, or Miami (Ohio) or Toledo

Oral Roberts

Delaware State

BYU or UNLV (Air Force is an at-large)

Central Conn St

Austin Peay

Holy Cross or Bucknell

Appalachian State or Davidson

Texas A&M CC or Sam Houston State

Jackson State or Texas Southern or Miss Valley St

South Alabama

Santa clara, Gonzaga or SF

New Mexico State or Utah State (but Nevada has a two-game lead and they are a lock)

The six BCS conference leaders, the regular season champ of the Missouri Valley (S.Illinois or Creighton) and Memphis are not included because they are very likely to get an NCAA at-large bid.

Standings at Yahoo Sports

For a breakdown of NIT at-large bids, check NITology