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South Easton, Mass. – After claiming the Northeast-10 Regular Season Title for the fourth year in a row last season, the Falcons of Bentley University are favored to finish first again this year as voted by the men’s basketball coaches. Overall, the Falcons received 223 votes to put them on the top of the preseason coaches’ poll.

Bentley made another run towards a national championship last year as the Falcons made their second straight appearance in the Elite Eight and are coming off back-to-back one-loss seasons.

Bentley received 13 of the possible 15 first-place votes edging out Merrimack College who received 203 points and a second place prediction. The Warriors received one first place vote. Assumption College follows as the Greyhounds are picked to finish third after receiving 187 points. Stonehill College is next with 170 points and the final first-place vote while Saint Anselm College and the College of Saint Rose finished tied for fifth place with 146 points.

Le Moyne College is picked to finished seventh in the poll with 127 points followed by another tie, this time for eighth place. Both American International College and Southern New Hampshire University received 110 points. Franklin Pierce University picked up 102 points narrowly beating out Pace University who finished with 98 points. The University of Massachusetts Lowell round out the playoff bound teams as the River Hawks are picked to finish 12th after receiving 74 points.

The University of New Haven (41), the newest member of the Northeast-10, is picked to finish 13th followed in order with Saint Michael’s College (40) and Southern Connecticut State University (23).

In addition to Bentley advancing to last year’s Elite Eight, the Northeast-10 was well represented in the NCAA Tournament as five teams including Assumption, then member Bryant University, Merrimack and Saint Rose appeared in the tournament.

The 2008-2009 season tips-off on Friday, November 7 as Bentley will take part in the three-day Disney Tip-Off Classic facing Minnesota State – Makoto. The first conference matchups start on Wednesday, November 19 with seven contests scheduled.

The Northeast-10 Championship begins on Saturday, February 28 with first round action and concludes Saturday, March 7 with the championship final.

For more details log on to the NE-10 website throughout the season at www.northeast10.org

With 15 member institutions the Northeast-10 is the second largest NCAA Division II athletic conference in the nation. Its 23 championship sports provide athletic opportunities for over 5,500 student-athletes, the largest such program of any Division II conference.

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