For $60,000...

...your team can host a game in a post-season tournament!

There is a new post-season tournament this season called the College Basketball Invitational. It is for teams that were snubbed by both the NCAA Tournament and the NIT. The organizers found 16 teams to play in this tournament, part of which is to be televised on Fox Sports Net and Fox College Sports.

Several teams from major conferences, such as Alabama, Missouri, and Texas Tech, balked at participating in this event. The organizers were asking for $60,000 in upfront money for schools to host a game. In addition, a host school would have had to organize an event and sell tickets in two days. Some schools said no. There were 16 schools that said yes.

This year's inagural CBI field includes: Virginia, Richmond, Old Dominion, Rider, Washington, Valparaiso, Houston, Nevada, UTEP, Utah, Tulsa, Miami (Ohio), Bradley, Cincinnati, Brown, and Ohio.

Of note: Cincinnati is in this tournament with a 13-18 record. The Bearcats had a good season in Big East play, but were awful in the pre-conference schedule. It would be funny if they won this tournament.

This event fills a void created when the NIT shrunk from 48 to 32 teams and began extending automatic bids to conference champions that did not win their post-season tournaments.

As bad as the CBI could be, it's better than some of the worthless football bowl games out there.