Conference Watch 2/8: northeastern conferences

America East

They're pretty far down in conference RPI, and have a good chance of sending its team to Dayton.

The contenders:
Albany (16-7) (11-0) RPI 135 SoS 290
Vermont (13-10) (9-2) RPI 185 SoS 272

With everyone else with 4 losses already.  Only 5 games left in conference play.  If Vermont can get one of the games back, they close at Albany.  Albany, if they sweep the conference, could avoid the 16 line.  Further down, Stony Brook is 7-4 in conference but actually leads them in RPI, at 118.  These 3 figure to be likely CBI/CIT candidates, with New Hampshire at 7-4 in the conference still with an outside chance.

Ivy

The at-large chances of Harvard have gone by the boards, but them or Yale should be on the 12 or 13 line.

The contenders:
Harvard (13-5) (5-1) RPI 57 SoS 140
Yale (14-7) (5-1) RPI 62 SoS 117

Harvard has already beaten Yale, so advantage to them.  No one else in the conference is in probable contention for a postseason bid, unless perhaps Columbia.  All of them will likely be hovering around .500 total.

Northeast

No real surprise here - no real threats in this conference to make any noise in March.

The contenders:
St Francis(NY) (15-9) (10-2) RPI 182 SoS 310
Robert Morris (12-12) (8-4) RPI 184 SoS 198
Bryant (11-12) (8-4) RPI 190 SoS 195

With 6 to go, a healthy 2 game lead for St Francis.  The odds are this conference can find a 2nd postseason team if St Francis holds in the conference tournament, and it might be St Francis(PA), lurking another game back in the standings...but if it were me, I'm not sure I'd pick any of them on merit.

MAAC

Very disappointing year.  Right now they're not even projected to have 2 teams inside the RPI Top 150.  Usually, they're good for 4 of 5 of them, helping to build depth in the conference.  This year has been awful.

The contenders:
Iona (17-6) (10-2) RPI 54 SoS 163
Manhattan (12-10) (9-4) RPI 203 SoS 297
Rider (15-9) (9-4) RPI 142 SoS 236

Iona doesn't have a good a profile as you'd think.  And everyone else would be staring at the 16 line with a tourney bid.  Not a good sign for the league.