last year's KenPom rankings (out of 353 teams)

Coppin St - 342 (8-25)
USC Upstate - 336 (6-26)
Lehigh - 169 (20-11)
Del St - 352 (7-25)
Chattanooga - 266 (12-20)
Gardner-Webb - 163 (23-12)
VMI - 288 (11-21)
MDES - 353 (6-25)

That is going to lead to an atrocious SoS.

That is a schedule that is designed to generate a few wins for a team that is going to be struggling to get them all year.

NIT isn't even a remote option with that schedule. Fans don't understand how much that tourney has changed. Once the NCAA took it over from the NYC schools it reduced the field from 48 to 32 and guaranteed all regular season champs a bid if they did not make it to the NCAA. That had the effect of cutting the number of bids to power conference teams in half. Generall the power conference teams to get NIT bids are those on the wrong side of the bubble. There are 1-2 exceptions to that per year, but not more. They do look at SoS as part of their criteria.

ACC heavily discourages its schools from participating in any pay-to-play tournaments.

This year is about gaining experience for a team that has little of it and grabbing enough wins to get to 11-12 wins overall.