Mid-major conference has five in RPI top 75
It may take only six degrees to connect journeyman actor Kevin Bacon to legendary thespian Sir Laurence Olivier. In Division I hoops, it takes fewer steps to link also-rans to the best.
Consider woeful Auburn, with the lowest RPI (319) of any major conference team, beating Florida State, which nine days later toppled No.??1 Duke.
NCAA basketball has never been an On-Any-Given-Sunday sport. But the pecking order is rapidly changing in Division I, where parity increases each season.
For further evidence, look to the Colonial Athletic Association. Before Tuesday night’s games, the CAA had five teams ranked in the RPI top 75, the same number claimed by the ACC, SEC and Pac-10.
| CAA credibility | ||||
| The top five CAA teams (ranked by RPI) are a combined 65-22 overall and have won 43 of 56 non conference games. | ||||
| Team | Record | RPI | ||
| Old Dominion | 13-4 | 35 | ||
| George Mason | 12-5 | 50 | ||
| James Madison | 15-3 | 61 | ||
| Drexel | 12-5 | 67 | ||
| VCU | 13-5 | 73 | ||
The CAA five — Old Dominion (35), George Mason (50), James Madison (61), Drexel (67) and Virginia Commonwealth (73) — make this year one of the most competitive in conference history.
But the strength also extends to the bottom of the CAA. William & Mary, the lowest-rated team in the league (261 RPI), took Syracuse to the wire 63-60 at the Carrier Dome. The CAA’s biggest coup was registered by Drexel, a 52-46 winner at Louisville, then undefeated and ranked No. 21.
The league’s longest-tenured coach, George Mason’s Jim Larranaga, has seen vast improvement in the CAA in his 14 seasons.
“The league has changed dramatically in terms of the quality at the top of the league and the depth that it has,” said Larranaga, who contends that the rise of tournaments and invitational events in November and December has given the mid-majors a chance to demonstrate their prowess on a level playing field.
“Now there’s really no difference when you play [a major conference school] on a neutral floor,” Larranaga said. “If you’re in the top 80, you can compete with anyone in the country, especially on a neutral floor.”
Mid-major success isn’t limited to the CAA. Other conferences thriving this season include Conference USA, with six teams in the RPI top 75 and the Mountain West, with five.
According to CAA coaches, the NBA one-and-done rule for draft eligibility has weakened major-conference schools.
“I think now, kids can go [to the NBA] after one year, it really breaks down some of these teams in the top six conferences,” UNCW coach Buzz Peterson said. “It’s going to be interesting with this collective bargaining agreement in the NBA whether they get the kids to stay for two years now.”
Some CAA coaches say the pool of talented high school players is growing each year, making for a better brand of mid-major recruit. Others contend the decrease in scholarships from 15 to 13 has spread the talent around.
“We pushed that 14th and 15th player that was at the Big Ten and ACCs into the mid-major levels,” Towson coach Pat Kennedy said. “When you take your top 50 schools and you take away two scholarships, that’s 100 scholarships going into mid-majors.”
It will be interesting to see if the CAA’s impressive showing outside the league will hold weight with the NCAA selection committee, which notoriously favors big-money, major-conference schools. Since the CAA was established in 1980, the league has been granted three at-large berths in the tournament.
“Hopefully it will mean, not one or two [teams], but three or four in the NCAA tournament,” Larranaga said.
