Rich Zvosec, friend of TSR, author and commentator, was recently named to the selection committee for the newly-founded CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament and I asked him a few questions about it through email.

TSR: So you’re on the selection committee for a new postseason tournament. What prompted the creation of this tournament and how will it compete with the NIT for the best teams that missed the NCAA tourney?

It is an honor to be to be on the selection committee for the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament. The purpose of this tournament is to reward deserving teams for an outstanding season. Over the past few years there have been numerous teams left out after 20+ win seasons. We feel that giving student-athletes a chance to lace up their sneakers one more time will only add to their experience as a collegiate athlete.

Many times, teams from non-BCS conferences are left out even after winning their conference title during the regular season. So much emphasis is placed on those three games in the conference tourney that exemplary seasons are sometimes overlooked because they fail to win their conference tournament. We hope to bring some of these teams into our tournament and reward them for a job well done.

TSR: How will the CollegeInsider.com tourney compete with the NIT, or will the two post-season tournaments be focused on a different type of team?

We will not compete at all. While the NIT sometimes takes a lower level team from a BCS conference our goal is to take mid-major and low major teams who have been overlooked. For example, in the past couple of years Akron and IUPUI have been left out of both the NIT and NCAA tournaments even though they each had over 23 wins.

The tournament will feature 16 teams in single elimination format.