For the second straight season, the Gators failed to make the NCAA Tournament.
UF (23-10, 9-7 Southeastern Conference) did make history, though, becoming the first team since Michigan State in 1980 to be left out of the field for two consecutive years after winning a national title.
Any hopes the Gators had of making it to the Big Dance were dashed after Friday's 61-58 loss to Auburn in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament.
UF had an RPI of 51, the 86th-best strength of schedule, one win against a top-50 RPI team (Pacific-10 Conference regular-season champion Washington) and a 2-6 road record in conference games.
"We obviously didn't do enough," forward Dan Werner said following the loss to Auburn. "We could have put ourselves in if we would have won (the SEC) tournament."
UF coach Billy Donovan has said all year that being a year older didn't necessarily make his team a year better.
It turns out he was right.
UF suffered another late-season collapse, losing seven of its last 12 games, and missed several opportunities to lock up an NCAA bid.
The Gators lost eight of their last 11 games last season.
UF has accepted a bid to play in the National Invitation Tournament and will host Jacksonville on Wednesday in the opening round at 8 p.m.
If they win, the Gators will face the winner of No. 4-seed Miami and No. 5-seed Providence.
The Gators are the No.1 seed in their region and will host the first two rounds of the tournament.
UF is also the first school to ever follow up back-to-back national championships with back-to-back NIT appearances.
Before last season, Donovan had not coached in the NIT since 1998.
"We're grateful for the opportunity to continue our season at the NIT," Donovan said in a statement. "We're looking forward to the opportunity to continue to practice and grow as a team."
UF made it to Madison Square Garden and the NIT semifinals in New York last season before losing to Massachusetts.
The NCAA selection committee was not kind to the SEC this year. Only three teams from the conference made the tournament, the fewest since 1990.
Tennessee, a No. 9 seed, will face No. 8 seed Oklahoma State. LSU, a No. 8 seed, will face No. 9 seed Butler. Mississippi State, which earned an automatic bid by winning the SEC Tournament on Sunday afternoon against Tennessee, earned a No. 13 seed and will face No. 4 seed Washington.
Auburn looked like it might have played its way into the field after winning nine of its last 11 games and knocking off UF in the conference tournament.
But the Tigers failed to land a spot in the Big Dance as well.
In a teleconference earlier this month, SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said he didn't think a conference's RPI would be a determining factor when deciding which schools would receive at-large bids, but the SEC ranks sixth overall in Conference RPI and last among the major conferences.
