Coaches around the Colonial Athletic Association have come to accept it as near fact that not every conference game will be played this season.

In a one-bid league where seeding for the CAA Tournament is crucial, the fairness of potentially unbalanced schedules could become an issue.

“Eighteen league games is probably unrealistic in our situation,” James Madison men’s coach Mark Byington said. “Truthfully, I’m just hoping we get 14 in. I want to play games and I believe my guys want to play games. Whether that is the best team in the conference on the road or the worst team in the conference at home, I want to play. But there probably will be some gamesmanship. If you are 8-2 and have a really good win percentage, maybe you aren’t as anxious to make up some games.”

At JMU, the men’s team has yet to play a conference game having six contests against Towson, UNC Wilmington and Elon already postponed after COVID-19 issues within those programs.

The Dukes’ women won one CAA game at home against Towson before the rematch on the road was postponed. Coach Sean O’Regan’s team was supposed to play two games at home against UNC Wilmington this weekend, but those were postponed after O’Regan tested positive for coronavirus.

Both the JMU men and women were seemingly done with non-conference contests. But the JMU men added a game Sunday against Chowan and O’Regan said the women were also working on adding another non-conference opponent, having reached out to Loyola of Maryland. Both moves signal the Dukes don’t expect to play a full 18 CAA contests.

The CAA recognized the possibility of not completing the conference schedule in the preseason, and drew up new standards for seeding the postseason tournaments. To be eligible for the CAA championship, teams must play 13 games total, the minimum required by the NCAA to participate in the national tournament.

Seeding for the CAA Tournament is based on winning percentage with teams playing a minimum of eight conference games. A team that plays fewer than eight will have losses added to its record to make up the difference. For example, an 8-0 record would be considered undefeated. A 6-0 record would become 6-2 for seeding purposes.

One caveat is if the average number of conference games played falls below eight, then each team must play no more than two fewer than the average total. The league has also tried to shuffle the schedule to match up available opponents, but in JMU’s case that often hasn’t worked out.

“We’ve said from the very beginning we are going to manage the situations as they arise,” CAA commissioner Joe D’Antonio told the Daily News-Record by phone Saturday. “If and when we arrive at a point where we have two teams that are healthy but don’t have opponents to play because their opponents are down to a COVID-related matter, we will, when possible, try to match up the two healthy teams. Even if that means a particular team might play four times in a season.”

The Northeastern and Delaware women are already planning to play four times. Byington and O’Regan each said it’s possible their teams wind up facing Towson, JMU’s travel partner in the league, on multiple occasions.

It might be difficult to come up with an infallible system in such an unusual season, but the current standard seems to open the door for a bit of schedule manipulation. How eager might a team be to squeeze in rescheduled road games against good teams considering how much potential losses might hurt its seeding?

Look at the JMU women’s upcoming docket. If the Dukes played their next few weeks as scheduled they’d likely be favored to win their next 10 CAA games before wrapping up the regular-season against contenders Delaware and Drexel.

In theory, if JMU racked up wins against the bottom half of the league it might not have much incentive to risk losses in the final weeks if COVID-19 provided any cover not to play.

“That is the question,” O’Regan said. “For me personally, I’m never going to turn down a game. I like the challenge and if we can play 15 instead of a 11, let’s play 15. But that raises a point about other people and competitive fairness. That could be a possibility.”

This weekend’s postponed games against UNCW might have established precedent for just that kind of thing. O’Regan said JMU was cleared to play without him on the sidelines by medical staff and the CAA, but the Seahawks opted out.

D’Antonio said the conference would not force any team to play if there was a “COVID-related reason” not to. UNCW coach Karen Barefoot didn’t respond to a message asking for comment on the postponement.

“It’s interesting,” O’Regan said. “What if I was scared to go play at Towson, which I’m not, but what if I was? What’s my responsibility to get that game in and when?”