Overall better conference play would help raise the an individual teams RPI, because that's the only thing that matters. If a MAC team had a great season (and that includes a couple wins over ranked teams probably, but that's what every other at-large team has on their resume too), and lost in the MAC final, the MAC would get two teams in. The same things would be true for the MEAC and any other smaller conference, its just not likely to happen, especially with the schedules most play. There isn't an opportunity for those signature wins, but it's individual team performance, not a conference as a whole that matters. Since 2002 (Can't's big run), MAC teams seeded higher than 13: 02 Can't 10 03 CMU 11 04 WMU 11 05 Ohio 11 06 Can't 12 08 Can't 9 13 Akron 12 I'll grant you most of those were a number of years ago, but the MAC has been seeded higher than 13 in more than half of the last 13 tournaments. I think one could argue the quality of the league has decreased in recent years which accounts for the lower recent seeds.