One of the many blogs I read each day is the D.C. Sports Bog by Dan Steinberg. I read it in part because I've met the author before and in part because it's a well-written and quite funny take on sports in the next metropolitan area over the Mason-Dixon Line from here.
Well, I was pretty taken aback just now when I read the headline "Washington Post: The CAA Does Not Exist." Apparently, in the Post's weekly bracket projection that came out this past Saturday, no CAA team was included. As in, there wasn't even one given an automatic bid.
But there was one caveat. Steinberg couldn't confirm that this actually happened. I can: it's right here.
I must politely disagree with that bracket. Okay, maybe not quite politely, but I'll try. First of all, I suspect the CAA will indeed get its automatic bid. But there's little doubt in my mind that the CAA should be a multiple-bid conference this year. How can you deny that to a conference with the following characteristics:
-- Four teams in the Pomeroy Top 100 (Old Dominion, Virginia Commonwealth, George Mason and Drexel, in that order);
-- Five teams in the RPI Top 100 (Drexel, Hofstra, VCU, ODU and Mason, in that order);
-- Five teams in the Sagarin Top 100 (VCU, Drexel, ODU, Hofstra and Mason, in that order);
-- And five teams in the top 100 in the non-conference strength of schedule rankings (Northeastern, Drexel, George Mason, UNC-Wilmington and Hofstra, in that order). By contrast, there are only two such teams in the Big East, one each in the ACC and Big Ten and three in the SEC.
On this week's College HoopsCast, Mike Jensen asserted that it's "quite possible" that the CAA could get three bids this year. I also think the CAA is quite strong -- maybe not three bids strong, but certainly two.
Oh, and that Post article calls Villanova a "typical middling Big East team" and seeds it as a 12, and seeds Penn as a 16 in what is "not the finest year for the Ivy."
I feel like I'm going to run out of space if I try to counter those assertions, so I'll let you see for yourself why I see things differently.
Credit where it's due: Inquirer photographer Charles Fox took the picture of Drexel coach Bruiser Flint giving an opinion to the refs during the Hofstra game last week.
