School administrators accepted the bid Sunday after Louisville was left out of the NCAA Tournament, but the Cardinals players reportedly had voted against an NIT trip before the ACC Tournament - where they lost to Virginia in the quarterfinals.
Interim coach David Padgett, who took the job when the school fired Rick Pitino in the wake of an FBI pay-for-play investigation just before the season, believed his team was worthy of an NCAA bid despite losing five of its last seven games.
"Without a doubt, if you look at our overall body of work, we haven't done anything wrong," Padgett told the media after Thursday's 75-58 defeat to the eventual ACC champion Cavaliers.
Louisville is the No. 2 seed and will face the seventh-seed Norse, who won the Horizon League regular-season title before being upset by Cleveland State in the opening round of the league tournament.
Northern Kentucky makes its first NIT appearance and plays Louisville for the first time in school history. Tip-off is set for 6:00 pm.
