High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The 2012 National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 32 NCAA Division I teams that were not selected to participate in the 2012 NCAA Tournament. The annual tournament began on March 13 on campus sites and ended on March 29 at Madison Square Garden. Stanford defeated Minnesota in the final game, by a score of 75-51 to become NIT champions for second time (first since 1991).