Tom Crean completely goes off on coaches opting out of the NIT

So you didn't make it into the NCAA Tournament, that doesn't mean your season is necessarily over. While you won't get the craziness of March Madness, you can still give guys on your team another chance to step on the court to represent their school. The NIT is a perfect example of this.

However, when it comes to the NIT, teams can opt-out choosing not to play and effectively end thier season.

During the NIT Selection Special, analyst Tom Crean went off on teams that choose to opt out of the NIT. So far seven schools have opted out of the tournament.

The seven teams that have opted out are St. Johns, Pitt, Memphis, Ole Miss, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Syracuse. These are all teams that were on bubble watch a majority of the season and were not able to pull enough wins together at the end for the Selection Committee to put them in.

Crean in his comments talks about how teams should not be able to opt-out as a whole, but if certain players and coaches want to opt-out, as they do in college football bowl games, then they should. However, these teams should give the guys who want to play another chance to wear thieir college uniform either again or for the final time if they are leaving.

When teams like the ones above opt-out, it makes it less fun to watch the NIT because we want to see the teams that almost made it play again. Why not get out on the court and battle it out for some sort of title?

So what are your thoughts? Should teams be allowed to opt out of the NIT, or should players and coaches who want to play be allowed to play?