A Manhattan federal judge gave the green light yesterday to a lawsuit over NCAA rules that allegedly keep top college hoop teams from playing in the annual National Invitation Tournament in Madison Square Garden.

The NIT’s lawsuit over the issue has enough merit to go to trial, Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum ruled.

“This evidence suggests that NCAA earns monopoly profits and has the power to exclude competing tournaments, such as the postseason NIT, from the market through its control over the athletic participation of its member universities and conferences,” Judge Cederbaum said.

The two tournaments are played around the same time in March. Generally speaking, the higher ranked basketball teams are invited to play in the NCAA Tournament. Some teams who don’t receive NCAA bids are invited to play in the NIT.

The Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association, which runs the NIT, charged NCAA rules unfairly require teams to participate in its championship tournament if invited, and bars teams from competing in both tournaments.

In court papers, the NCAA argued that its tournament is the premier event to determine the best basketball team in the country, while the NIT tournament is a second-tier alternative.

The NIT’s sponsor estimates that the NCAA gets the lion’s share of money from postseason college basketball – including 99 percent of all television revenues.

Cedarbaum noted the number of teams participating in the tournaments has expanded in recent years and that attendance is up for both. She suggested a possible compromise: Abolishing NCAA rules that bar teams from playing in both tourneys, and altering their schedules so teams could play in both.