C-Bye-Bye to Fairfield's season

No CBI this year for Fairfield; the sixteen-team field was announced just before midnight late Sunday night, and the Stags - or any other MAAC team - were not included. Niagara (NIT) and Rider (CIT) secured non-NCAA bids earlier this evening.

Plenty of questions around this one: Did the CBI selection committee really feel that Fairfield, strong RPI, improved conference and all, was not worthy of a tourney bid? Hard to believe. The better question: did Fairifeld turn down the bid given the financial implications and added hastles a low level tournament would bring? Was Cooley already on his way to the Bahamas for that dream vacation he's been talking about for weeks?

Let the speculation (and countdown to Nov. 2009) begin.