Nov 12, 2024; Oxford, Mississippi, USA; South Alabama Jaguars head coach Richie Riley watches during the first half against the Mississippi Rebels at C.M. ‘Tad’ Smith Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images
By Sam Neumann on

If you think West Virginia and Indiana got a raw deal, South Alabama might have it worse.

The two Power Four teams were left out in favor of a North Carolina squad that went 1-12 in Quad 1 games — a decision that raised even more eyebrows when the casual fan learned that UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham chaired the Selection Committee.

That controversy played out behind closed doors. South Alabama, on the other hand, got screwed in broad daylight.

Fox has effectively gutted the National Invitation Tournament in favor of its new College Basketball Crown, but for programs like South Alabama, postseason basketball — any postseason basketball — still matters. The Jaguars fell just short of an automatic bid, losing by three points to Arkansas State in the Sun Belt semifinals.

But for about an hour, they were in.

Head coach Richie Riley told AL.com that Sun Belt commissioner Keith Gill and NCAA Senior VP of Basketball Dan Gavitt called him around 9:30 p.m. Sunday with an official NIT invitation. The spot had opened up because UC Riverside, originally selected, had already committed to the lower-tier College Basketball Invitational. South Alabama was told it was in — 100%.

Then, suddenly, it wasn’t.

About an hour later, Riley got another call. Gill and Gavitt informed him that UC Riverside had backed out of its CBI commitment and was reclaiming its NIT spot.

Just like that, South Alabama was out. And Riley was left to tell his players that the rug had been yanked out from under them.

Gutting. Heart-wrenching. Agonizing. Harrowing. Whatever adjective you want to use.

The NIT tried to do damage control, but they might’ve been better off not saying anything at all.

“After the NIT bracket was released Sunday evening, it was brought to the NIT’s attention that one of the teams scheduled to participate in the tournament had also committed to a non-NCAa affiliated postseason event,” Gavitt said in a statement. “In an effort to secure another participating team, the NIT prematurely extended an invitation to the South Alabama Jaguars, prior to learning the original team chose to accept its invitation to the NIT. Regrettably, the NIT rescinded its invitation to South Alabama. We understand the emotional impact this confusion created, and we sincerely apologize to South Alabama, head coach Richie Riley, and all the student-athletes for the error.”

This was more than just an error — it was essentially a lie.

And Riley isn’t ready to forgive or forget.

In fact, he essentially told the NIT to take their apology and shove it.

“A meaningless apology to the most meaningful group of players I’ve ever coached!” he wrote in a post on X. “What they did to us last night is inexcusable! These guys in our locker room don’t deserve this and it’s sad your idea of making it right is a copy and paste apology!

Riley has since flooded his feed with retweets condemning the NIT’s handling of the situation. And while retweets don’t always count as endorsements, there’s little doubt he’d sign his name to every single one.

The NIT was supposed to be a lifeline for teams that had great seasons but fell short of the NCAA Tournament.

And a postseason bid, no matter the tournament, validates a season’s hard work. The Jaguars earned that moment, only to have it snatched away by a bureaucratic blunder. Riley has every right to be furious, and he’s making sure everyone hears about it.

The NIT can apologize all it wants, but the damage is already done for South Alabama.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann