QT: Atlantic 10 trending toward a single bid

Think back to early November.  Back to when Dayton and Saint Louis were expected to be Top 25-ish teams.  Combined with the likes of Davidson, VCU, George Mason and others, the Atlantic 10 was poised to garner some serious attention in the Selection Committee room.

A month in, the landscape has changed, and not for the better.

Heading into play today (Saturday, Dec. 10), only two A10 teams are positioned within the Top 100 of the early NET ratings: Saint Louis (82) and Massachusetts (97).  Dayton has fallen all the way to 189, coming off a 28-point defeat at Virginia Tech.  The Flyers have yet to beat a team with a winning record.  VCU (145) has a couple of decent wins against Pittsburgh and Vanderbilt, but is reeling from a recent home loss to Jacksonville.  George Mason generated some early buzz, but that disappeared after three consecutive defeats at the Paradise Jam.

What about Fordham?  The Rams are 10-1 (9-0 at home).  Among those nine home-court victories, eight are currently against teams residing in Quad 4 on the NET team sheets.  The Rams best wins are Harvard and Tulane.

There’s time for teams to rebound (or build), but it’s looking less and less likely that the A10 will be a multiple-bid league on Selection Sunday.  And based upon current evidence, the league is unfortunately trending toward a single bid.

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