the NCAA tournament was 16 teams and conf affiliation didn’t buy an invite; an NIT appearance was a respectable alternative, and more.
It’s a totally different landscape today.
No doubt it is a different landscape but there were more than 16 teams and conference affiliation had a clear path. By the time I was born (long time ago in the 1950s) there were 24 of the less than 200 D1 teams in the tourney.... winning your conference got you the qualifier.
MAC, WAC, PAC , SEC, ACC, Yankee(CAA),B10,OVC,SWC, MVC, Big 8, Mountain States, Border, Ivy, Southern and Metro were all bid leagues with winners getting in and Independents like ND, Pitt, Seattle, louisvillle,houston, Marquette and others filling out the field in the 50s and early 60s.
The NIT was the show through the 50's. It was not an alternative till the NCAA started to expand. Bill Bradley (some may need to look him up) said it had better teams, more exposure and more glamour than the NCAA that bestowed the title on the winner of their tourney. Clear through my childhood we always watched BOTH....though I could never understand why the NIT always had all the private schools (Bradley , Butler, Dayton, Fordham) and the NCAA (UK, NC State, Cal, Cincy, IU, tO$U) seemed to be more State schools.
It was always curious to me that in the early 60s UK hosted the Mideast with Ohio State, MAC rep (BG, Ohio, Miami), Butler, WESTERN Ky while Cincy was sent west to CHicago, Houston, Portland OR and Ft WOrth for the Midwest First round.
Sorry for the thread drift but the last time there were 16 schools was the 1952 tourney.