The NIT Season Tip-Off is an annual college basketball tournament that takes place in November of each year, around the beginning of the season. The first two rounds are held at campus sites and the semifinals and the finals are held at Madison Square Garden. The tournament began in 1985 as the Preseason NIT, so called to distinguish it from the post-season NIT. In 2005, the NCAA purchased the Men's Preseason and Postseason NIT and renamed the November tournament the NIT Season Tip-Off. The tournament remains one of the most well-known preseason tournaments, along with the Maui Invitational and the Great Alaska Shootout.