willing to pay the $50,000 entry fee. If you look at the history of the CBI, then you will see just about every year at least 1 team made the tournament with a below .500% record.

2008: Cincinnati (13-19)
2009: St. John's (16-17) and Oregon State (13-17) *note: Oregon State won the tournament that year
2010: Oregon State (14-17)
2011: Oregon (16-17) *note: Oregon won the tournament that year
2012: Washington St (15-16) *note: Washington State lost to Pitt in the championship series
2013: Purdue (15-17) and Texas (16-17)
2014: ODU (16-17), Penn State (15-17), and Siena (15-17)
2015: Colorado (15-17)
2016: Seattle (14-16), UNC-Greensboro (14-18), and Western Carolina (16-17)
2017: Coastal Carolina (16-17), Hampton (14-16), UIC (15-18), Loyola (MD) (15-16), and Utah Valley (15-16)
2018: Miami (OH) (16-17), New Orleans (15-16), North Texas (15-17), and UT-Rio Grande Valley (15-17)
2019: CS-Northridge (13-20), Coastal Carolina (15-16), Longwood (15-17), and WVU (14-20)
2020: Canceled
2021: Longwood (12-16) and Stetson (11-14)

If these smaller schools can come up with the money to play in the tournament, then maybe VT should consider it unless the ACC has a rule that forbids teams from participating in the tournament.