NCAA ends legal battle by purchasing NIT's two events

NEW YORK -- The NCAA purchased the rights to the preseason and postseason National Invitation Tournaments as part of a settlement that ends a four-year legal fight between the two parties.

In the deal announced Wednesday, the NCAA will pay $56.5 million to the five New York City colleges that operate the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association, the organization that has run the NIT since 1940.

Fordham University, Manhattan College, St. John's University, Wagner College and New York University will receive $40.5 million for the rights to the tournaments and $16 million in litigation fees over 10 years.

NCAA president Myles Brand said the tournaments will continue to be played in Madison Garden for at least the next five years and ESPN will continue to televise both tournaments.

A civil trial in which the NIT had claimed that the NCAA was trying to put it out of business began two weeks ago.

On Tuesday, a jury that had been listening to NIT witnesses and evidence in Manhattan was sent home for the day by U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum after lawyers said a deal had been struck to end the dispute.