How Does the 'Jeopardy!' Invitational Tournament Work? It's Like a Trivia March Madness

There's nothing quite like testing your knowledge against the other great minds of the day. Standing up on the Jeopardy! stage, today's thinkers and knowers compete for money, but also for the prestige of saying that they came out on top in what is respected as one of America's most long-standing mainstream adult academic competitions.

There's a time of year when the Jeopardy! world turns into a tournament that resembles the NBA's March Madness, with tiers of players competing against one another to make it to the top and claim the title of Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament winner. But how does it all work? Here's the scoop.

Every year, Jeopardy! contestants gear up for the tournament that pits the best against the best. It's not the Tournament of Champions, but it's a dog-eat-dog race to the top that starts with 27 players.

As the name implies, the players are invited from previous Jeopardy! games. Usually, they are past winners from the preceding season, with some favorites from earlier seasons mixed in.

On Jeopardy.com, fans can track the brackets of their favorite players as they start in one of seven initial games, made up, of course, of three players each. From there, the winner of each of the seven games will be divided into three semifinal games.

The winners of those three games will go to the finals, where the top three players from the two preceding brackets will compete to become the champion.

Like with all Jeopardy! games, there's a financial incentive too. The champion of the Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament wins an impressive $150,000.

While you're listening to people talk about the Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament, you might hear people occasionally referencing "JIT."

Host Ken Jennings, for instance, was in a 2025 commercial for the tournament where he asked viewers, "You know what's too le-JIT to quit? The Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament!"

So it may not surprise you to realize that "JIT" is merely an acronym and a popular way to refer to the (J)eopardy! (I)nvitation (T)ournament.

For those who aren't familiar with Jeopardy!, following a bunch of trivia players as they academically scrap their way to the top might seem odd. But for fans, there's nothing as serious as rooting your favorite player on while they advance up the tiers to compete for the championship.

Popular Science hypothesized that the reason people love watching these competitions so much is due to the, "Well, it could be me!" phenomenon. Meaning, you can put yourself in the shoes of the competitors, and when they win you can feel as though you're both smart and accomplished. Or could be, if you just had a chance to compete.

It can be fun to pit your brain against people who take trivia seriously, and JIT is as le-JIT-imately serious as it gets.

Jeopardy! is an American tradition in many ways. And with JIT mirroring the NBA March Madness, it's clear that the creators are aiming to make it even more competitive and high stakes as the years go by.