A basketball tournament, or tourney, is a competition between teams of basketball players. The National Invitational Tournament, or NIT, is an annual men's college basketball tournament that was established in 1938. Teams are seeded according to their rankings and the higher-seeded teams have an advantage in the tournament. The opening round of the tournament is when the teams first compete against each other. BYES are given to the higher-seeded teams, meaning they do not have to play in the opening round. The semifinals are the last two rounds of the tournament before the championship game.