MAAC

CHN's 31 conference ranking, including 10 year historical averages based on average RPI finish. For more information on historical RPI averages, check out the Conference Data Page. Links lead to league preview pages.

In recent weeks, the Rise & Fall series has chronicled the progress (or regress) of college basketball's major conference teams. But if I equated each team to a civilization, I was mistaken. It is really the NCAA conference that equates to a burgeoning civilization or nation, each with its sometimes stable and sometimes rotating member states. Like civilizations, the prestige and power of conferences wax and wane..

People have been emailing me this week asking how I came up with the groupings for the Conference Rise & Fall articles. While the groupings I used were based on a mix of intuition and stats, here are the actual conference RPI's over the last decade. Notice the clean split between certain league divisions.. for example, the BCS leagues and non-BCS leagues. The difference in avg RPI between the best and worst BCS leagues (ACC & Pac-10) is 2.7, which is almost as big as the gap between the Pac-10 and the closest non-BCS league.

ALBANY, N.Y.- To say that things didn't look good from a depth standpoint heading into tonight's MAAC Tournament semifinal for Rider would be an understatement. Both Ryan Thompson and Justin Robinson missed the game due to injury, but Jason Thompson showed the Times Union Center crowd why he's Player of the Year and Matt Griffin and Kamron Warner stepped up to get the Broncs a 76-71 victory over Marist.

ALBANY, N.Y.- On paper, the matchup between conference co-champion Rider and last-place Canisius looked like an absolute snoozer. The Broncs, in sweeping the Golden Griffins, won the two games in blowout fashion. The second of which was a 102-51 whipping that underscored just how bad Canisius has been all year. But a not so funny thing happened: Canisius didn't fold.

As many as six teams have a shot at automatic bid
By Raphielle Johnson

Tonight's battle between Marist and Fairfield went just about as expected for a game between schools tied with 9-6 league records. Double overtime, won in the end by the home-standing Stags, now winners of five straight. But how this game got to its conclusion is something that will be talked about from now until the entire conference shows up in Albany, NY for the conference tournament.