CAA BracketBusters - How Much Can They Go Up?

That’s the question being asked by many fans of the Colonial Athletic Association, as it relates to the much-ballyhooed metric of Conference RPI.

Currently, the CAA stands at a humbling 14th (average overall RPI of 0.4949), behind the Mid-American and West Coast Conferences, which stand at an approachable average overall RPI rating of 0.4991. It’s been six years since a conference with an RPI of 14 or lower has had an at-large bid.

While the CAA has shown the propensity to be a conference that improves as the season moves along (7-2 in televised BracketBusters matchups in the last two years), their less-than-stellar play in November and December has dealt them the following matchups.

All RPI data from kenpom.com

CAA BracketBusters Matchups
VCU (60) @ Akron (91)
George Mason (67) @ Ohio (62)
Bucknell (197) @ Old Dominion (115)
Vermont (220) @ UNC Wilmington (137)
Loyola- Chi (232) @ William & Mary (164)
Northeastern (172) @ Holy Cross (139)
Delaware (182) @ Toledo (202)
Morehead State (196) @ James Madison (217)
Fairfield (175) @ Drexel (224)
Hofstra (243) @ Iona (205)
High Point (240) @ Towson (249)
Georgia State (286) @ Jacksonville State (338)

Other MAC/WCC BracketBusters Matchups
Kent State (40) @ St. Mary’s (26) – ONLY WCC representative
Miami-Ohio (86) @ Valparaiso (131)
Western Michigan (140) @ UW-Green Bay (136)
Central Michigan (173) @ Missouri State (157)
Bowling Green (209) @ Detroit (281)
Southeast Missouri State (278) @ Eastern Michigan (223)
Tennessee State (265) @ Northern Illinois (261)
Youngstown State (194) @ Buffalo (272)
Ball State (280) @ Eastern Kentucky (246)

• Games in bold are televised
• Games in italics identify those which include matchups between teams with a conference RPI of 12 through 14

For the CAA to move up the conference RPI charts, the following things must happen this weekend for the conference to gain an at-large bid:

• The CAA’s Top 5 (VCU, GMU, UNCW, ODU, W&M) MUST win
• The CAA MUST go 3-0 against the MAC
• Kent State (who throttled George Mason) MUST defeat St. Mary’s
• The MAC MUST go winless in its remaining televised games
• The CAA MUST go at least 8-4
• The MAC MUST win less than half of its games