America East conference tournament preview

This is part 5 of a 32-part series previewing every conference tournament in the country.  We'll detail what you need to keep track of in each tournament and the various stakes for each team.

Final standings:
Vermont 16-0
Stony Brook 12-4
Albany 10-6
New Hampshire 10-6
UMBC 9-7
UMass-Lowell 5-11
Hartford 4-12
Binghamton 3-13
Maine 3-13

Tournament format:
Quarterfinals Wednesday March 1, semis Monday March 6, finals Saturday March 11.  The bye days in this tournament are brutal.  Each game is hosted at the highest seed, with reseeding for the semifinals.  So weird to space your games out like this.

UMass-Lowell is still in D-1 transition and is sitting out.

The matchups:
8) Maine at 1) Vermont
5) UMBC at 4) New Hampshire
6) Hartford at 3) Albany
7) Binghamton at 2) Stony Brook

The stakes:
A-East rose to RPI 21, on the back of Vermont and a sturdy top half.  4 teams have RPIs in the mid-100s, balancing out 4 in the 300s.  And Vermont...47!  Vermont currently counts as a top 50 win for Providence, South Carolina, and Butler!  Vermont is 25-5, RPI 47, and a pretty damn good SoS for an A-East team in the 160s.  No at-large hope, though, as they don't have a Top 100 win.  They'll be a good bellweather for how the committee will treat RPI for mid-majors.  If they seed Vermont as a 12 or a 13, it's clear they love RPI.  If they seed them as a 14, it means they're still paying attention to overall resume of teams in that range.

The next 4 teams in the standings are all over .500 by a healthy margin, and with RPIs in the mid-100s, are in range of CIT bids.  This seems to be one of the better years for the league, getting close to the teens in the CRPI.  Any of these 4 teams should be able to miss Dayton if they win out here.  Which they won't, because Vermont is bossing this league right now.