MAAC conference tournament preview

This is part 8 of a 32-part preview.

Standings:
Rider 15-3
Canisius 15-3
Niagara 12-6
Iona 11-7
Fairfield 9-9
Manhattan 9-9
Monmouth 7-11
Quinnipiac 7-11
St Peter's 6-12
Siena 4-14
Marist 4-14

Format:
March 1-5.  Neutral site in Albany.

Matchups:
1) Rider vs. 8/9) Monmouth/St Peter's
4) Iona vs. 5) Manhattan
3) Niagara vs. 6/11) Fairfield/Marist
2) Canisius vs. 7/10) Quinnipiac/Siena

The stakes:
More years than not, recently, the MAAC has had a say in some of the at-large discussion.  Alas, not this year. Conference is down at CRPI 18 and no one has a profile even remotely close.  Rider has a relatively shiny RPI in the 60s, but with no resume heft supporting it.  As such, the winner of the conference should very well be staring at the 15 line, although attrition in other conferences will likely bump that up to a 14 or even a 13 if the committee is feeling nice.

Eligible for CBI/CIT outside of the co-champs:  Niagara, Iona...and that's it.  It's been a down year for the conference, from top to bottom.  It's against recent form of the conference.  These things seem to work cyclically.