The CAA’s one-bid existence

It’s a sad reality in college basketball that what you do in November and December can come back to haunt you in March. Such is this case this season in the CAA. The league which last season sent VCU to the Final Four is now looking at one-bid status and a crazy few days in Richmond to determine its NCAA tournament representative. In the mock NCAA bracketing session that was conducted by the NCAA for the media Old Dominion won the conference tourney. (Ha!) They ended up at 55 on the s-curve.

It’s sad that it has come to this for the league. It’s weird that the big opponents on Bracket Busters weekend for the league are Cleveland State, Missouri State and Northern Iowa. (You thought I was going to say Lamar?)

But it comes back to those fateful first few months. Drexel lost to Norfolk State on November 18. George Mason lost to both Florida Atlantic and Florida International in overtime. (Not to mention Duquesne.) VCU fell to Georgia Tech. (VCU’s second worse loss according to Pomeroy is the one-point one to GMU. Fathom that.) The Dragons and Patriots both whiffed at a chance to take down Virginia and the Rams fell to Alabama and Seton Hall. There is no top tier win for the conference to hang its hat on. Instead there are three very good teams fighting for just a single bid.

What happens in November and December though reverberates further into the season. The bottom of the CAA is also non-existent. The conference has five teams ranked below 200 in the Pomeroy rankings, with a sixth, Northeastern, itching to join them. That’s half the conference offering up the opportunity for a bad loss. (How weird is it that Hofstra, with wins over Iona and Cleveland State, has two of the league’s best wins?)

But those three title contenders have basically taken care of business. Last season before the NCAA tournament VCU was ranked right around the 49th spot it currently holds in Pomeroy. Then for five magical games in March the threes kept falling and the wins kept coming. (I was lucky enough to see two of them.) It took the Rams all the way to Final Four. Honestly, it could happen again. VCU is younger, but they’re tough and battle tested. I’m sure Bradford Burgess wants another shot.

And even if lightning were to strike twice it wouldn’t change anything. Another Final Four for VCU wouldn’t justify the CAA as a two-bid league. It’d just prove that sometimes what happens in November and December can be forgotten thanks to a few great days in March.