CAA Places Five Teams In Post Season

In a season that saw the regular season finish in a four way tie for first place, the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) will have five teams play in post season tournaments.

It is the most teams to make post season play in the league since 2011, when Old Dominion (now in C-USA), VCU and George Mason (both now in the A-10) all qualified for the NCAA Tournament.   James Madison and Hofstra both played in the College Insider Tournament (CIT).

Northeastern University is seeded 14th in the NCAA Tournament and will face No. 3 seed Notre Dame in Columbus, Oh on Thursday afternoon at 12:15 p.m.   The Huskies earned the automatic bid by defeating William & May in the conference championship game 72-61 on March 9th.

Despite the four-way tie at the top of the league William & Mary (20-12) earned the title of regular season champions via a tie breaker.  Along with that title came an automatic qualifier bid into the NIT when it was eliminated in the conference championship game.  The Tribe will travel to Tulsa Oklahoma on Tuesday night to take on the Golden Hurricanes (22-10) of the American Athletic Conference.

Both James Madison (19-13) and UNCW (18-13) will play road games in the Collegeinsider.com (CIT) tournament. The James Madison Dukes will travel to Spartanburg, SC to play South Carolina Upstate on Tuesday night.  The Spartans finished 23-11 and lost out on a bid to the NCAA by losing in the Atlantic Sun Championship game to North Florida 63-57 on March 8th.

UNCW will also take to the road, travelling to Huntsville, TX to face Sam Houston State in the CIT.  The Bearkats (25-7) lost in the Southland Conference championship game to Stephen F. Austin 83-70 on Saturday night.

Hofstra (20-13) will be the only CAA team to host a post season game in the first round.  The Pride will take on the Vermont (18-13) in Hempstead, NY on Wednesday night.  The Catamounts of the America East conference lost to Stony Brook in the conference tournament semifinals on March 8th.

The NCAA tournament has a field of 68 teams, the NIT and CIT have 32 team fields and the CBI is composed of 16 teams.