An overall positive week for the Spiders. The CAA race is now wide open and a few bubble resumes got a lot weaker.

CAA Results

Elon over Delaware. How about the Elon Phoenix – a huge road win at Delaware means the CAA race now has five teams tied at the top. I’m clueless when it comes to a multiple team tiebreaker, but I’m sure we’ll get some clarity on this after this upcoming weekend.

Either way the Spiders now control their destiny for a CAA ring. Can’t argue with that with two games to go, however the margin for error still remains at zero. Must win games the next two weeks.

Villanova over UNH. Villanova remains in the CAA hunt with a huge road win. If Villanova loses to Delaware to end the season they finish 8-3 with losses to UD and Albany. They’d have a stronger resume than UR which could make things interesting.

Albany over W&M. Albany is a quiet powerhouse this season. They essentially locked up a playoff spot with strong wins, as they now sit at seven D-I wins with Stony Brook still on the schedule. The Great Danes have a great resume, while the Tribe is done for. A top-5 preseason team won’t even make the playoffs, which would normally be hilarious for me however it would’ve been nice to play a ranked W&M team.

Other results

Furman over Chattanooga. The Mocs will likely finish 7-4 and don’t steal the SoCon auto bid. Very good news for bubble teams.

Tennessee State loses to Charleston Southern. A few had Tennessee State as a bubble team, but now they’re out.

Lafayette loses to Colgate. If Fordham beats Lafayette next week the Patriot reverts back to a 1-bid league. The more bubble spots the better.

Nicholls over Incarnate Word. The bubble potentially shrinks with this one, as Nicholls likely gets the auto-bid now while IUW remains in the at-large picture.

Austin Peay defeats Eastern Kentucky, who could’ve been a bid stealer from the United Athletic Conference. Now we’ll be rooting for Central Arkansas to lose one of their next two, which could make the UAC a 1-bid conference.

Final two weeks

Plenty of positive results happened this week for everyone to feel comfortable about an 8-3 finish being enough for UR. There are some big Missouri Valley games the next two weeks that should move one or two teams to the 4-loss category, so despite zero ranked wins I feel good about our position.

The bad news is aside from everyone losing another CAA game I don’t think we’ll be getting the CAA auto-bid. Hard to imagine a scenario where the tiebreaker goes in our favor since we don’t play Delaware, Albany, or Villanova. That won’t matter to this group down the stretch though – we’re likely 120 minutes of strong football away from a CAA title and second straight at-large playoff bid. Just keep winning.

Next Post

Elon preview (Friday morning)