I saw Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina were all formally asked but declined, along with Michigan, Penn State, and Florida State, among others. Not sure about Auburn, but they aren't in it.
The CBI bracket (found
here) only includes 1 major conference team (Colorado), and I bet they would have wanted more. There are 3 teams without winning records in there (Colorado, Seattle, and Delaware State), and several teams in there with a similar RPI to ours:
174 - Hofstra
203 - Vermont
204 - Delaware State
212 - Mercer
280 - Seattle (WTF 280??)
So did they not call us, despite calling several similar-resume teams with much smaller fanbases? Or did we tell them no? I think it might have been a good idea to play in the tournament if we'd had the chance -- get some momentum for next year playing teams that
even we would probably beat.
ETA: Before people start saying we're too good to play in the CBI, remember that if Butler, Cincinnati, Creighton, George Mason, Houston, Oregon State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Santa Clara, St. John's, St. Louis, Stanford, TCU, Texas, Texas A&M, VCU, Virginia, Washington, Washington State, and Wichita State (
source) aren't too good for the CBI, we aren't either, especially in the state our program is currently in.