Saint Joseph's, Xavier, Dayton and Richmond have positioned themselves for NCAA Tournament bids out of the Atlantic 10. Barring a conference tournament win by another team in the league, that's all the the A-10 can expect.

But it's much better from a year ago when the A-10 sent just Xavier to the dance.

In Monday's latest RPI report, the A-10 had three teams ranked among the top 20. Saint Joseph's (10), Xavier (16), and Dayton (18). Only the SEC and Big 12 have more teams ranked in the top 20 with four each, while the Pac-10 also has three team in the top 20.

While the A-10 can't expect the selection committee to place three at-large teams from its conference into the bracket, its top-tier teams can do one thing to make a strong case to get into the NCAA field.

"We need separation," Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli said. "We can't have teams like Dayton losing to Duquesne or to Fordham. We need teams to separate themselves to be 14-2 or 13-3. We're in a stronger position to get multiple bids, from two to three to our wildest dreams four. But we can't have the pitfalls."

Saint Joseph's is taking care of business so far, running off to a 12-1, 4-0 start in the league after Tuesday night's 65-55 victory over Temple. The Hawks also won at Boston College, Gonzaga and beat DePaul in non-conference games. Gonzaga might end up being the only NCAA team of the three, but the Hawks still made attempts to play up on their schedule. But Saint Joseph's doesn't have to play Xavier, Richmond or Dayton more than once since all three are in the A-10's West Division, while the Hawks play in the East Division.

"That's the problem for us. We're (Dayton, Richmond and Xavier) on the same side," Dayton coach Oliver Purnell said.

Xavier (11-4, 2-1) has quality wins over Purdue, Creighton and at Cincinnati. The Musketeers played up, but lost at Stanford, at Alabama and to Mississippi State in New York.

"Following the Alabama game, we were like No. 2 in the RPI and No. 7 in strength of schedule so I felt good about our situation," Xavier coach Thad Matta said. "We just have to make sure we take our of ourselves in the league."

Richmond (8-5, 2-0) has the most tenuous of the four teams' current résumés; considering the Spiders are the only one of the four not rated in the RPI's top 25 this week, landing at 54. The Spiders won at Stanford, beat Charlotte, UAB, lost to Wake Forest and won at Xavier in the A-10. Richmond could disrupt the race this week when it plays at Dayton (10-3, 2-0) on Wednesday.

"They were really good last year, don't forget about that," Matta said.

The most interesting case of the four, however, is Dayton. The Flyers have squeaked by with a last-second win over Villanova, an overtime win over Marquette at home, and beat Cincinnati rather convincingly. Had the Flyers not won the first two games, they probably wouldn't be in position for an at-large berth. Playing Duke to within 11 in Durham didn't hurt, either.

"The major reason we played at Duke was to get the national exposure," Purnell said. "And to get the power rating points."

Dayton is finding more ways to score this season with junior forward Keith Waleskowski as the primary go-to player. He averaged 18 points and 12.5 rebounds last week in the two Flyers' wins over LaSalle and Duquesne. He hit his only 3-point attempt late in the game to beat LaSalle, 76-72. He had double-double in the Flyers' tight, 77-72 win over Duquesne.

Point guard Ramod Marshall, who boasts a 2-to-1 turnover-to-assist ratio, was able to get into Marquette's defense rather easily in their victory over the Eagles. Brooks Hall (15 ppg, 8.1 rpg) is still a legitimate threat on the wing. But the defense is the concern for the Flyers. They're giving up too many points to teams like La Salle and Duquesne. Following the Richmond game, the Flyers play five of their next six on the road. We should know if they're still an at-large team after that stretch.

"We were a good defensive team last year," Purnell said. "We're not there yet. This group has a chance. If we share the ball we can be consistent. We don't have just one guy. I'd be feeling better if we had last year's defensive mindset. We're continuing to work on it."

The safety net is having the A-10 tournament in Dayton. Getting a conference tourney on your homecourt isn't a given for a tournament win. But it sure helps. Attendance should be high. Enthusiasm should be at a fevered pitch, especially after some of the dungeon like crowds in the early rounds at the old Philadelphia Spectrum for the A-10 tourney.

"It's a big deal for them," Martelli said. "They've got knowledgeable fans and it should be a great atmosphere. What will be tough is if Dayton finishes third on that side and a team finishes second on our side and is a bubble team. If that happens, they could lose to Dayton in the quarterfinals and have no chance to get into the NCAA Tournament."

"If we're playing well, it will be a huge advantage for us," Purnell said. "It was a coup to get it here."

So, let's assume Saint Joseph's doesn't collapse. Dayton could still conceivably win the conference tournament, which would force Richmond to make a serious run to finish first or second in the West Division. Where does that leave Xavier?

The Musketeers are playing without their starting point guard Lionel Chalmers (out with a foot injury for a month). But David West (26 against Saint Bonaventure after scoring a season-low 10 against Richmond) and Romain Sato (20 points against Alabama and Richmond, 25 against the Bonnies) seem to have solved any of their scoring slumps within the last week.

"Lionel is starting to work his way back," said Matta, who had to play the final 7:12 of the game Saturday without a point guard when Dedrick Finn fouled out. "We need to have David play the way he did in that game. He's one of the best in college basketball."

The expectation is Xavier won't collapse again after a convincing win over Saint Bonaventure on Saturday. But the Musketeers have a stretch coming up where they've got to create distance. They host La Salle and then play four of their next five on the road, including a game at Richmond.

"We need Chalmers to play," Martelli said. "That's not a good thing for our league. We need Xavier to be an elite team."

Translation: The A-10 needs the Musketeers to pave the way for others to get those other elusive at-large bids.

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.