HARRISONBURG — The lesson writes itself.

“There’s not a single team in this league that’s not capable of beating another team,” James Madison coach Curt Cignetti said. “And that’s been proven.”

If this past Saturday taught anyone anything about the Colonial Athletic Association, it’s not to believe what’s preconceived.

And heading into this Saturday’s contest against William & Mary, the No. 2 Dukes are much better on paper than the unranked Tribe. JMU has ripped off six straight wins including three over ranked conference foes while William & Mary has dropped three consecutive games.

But the expected discrepancy was similar when previously-No. 9 Towson hosted Albany over the weekend and the Great Danes stunned the Tigers for a 38-21 upset win as part of four decisions won by unranked teams over ranked teams in the CAA this past Saturday.

“What gets lost in the shuffle is there’s not a coach in this conference that feels comfortable every week and thinks that they’re going to win the game,” Albany coach Greg Gattuso said. “Just top to bottom in our league, you better be ready to play every week or you’re not going to win.”

Richmond stunned defending conference champion and then-No. 18 Maine on the road at Alfond Stadium, where the Black Bears had won six of their previous seven. Elon was outscored 71-20 in losses to JMU and New Hampshire prior to bouncing back for its blowout victory over then-No. 15 Delaware on Saturday. UNH made it four straight wins by knocking off previous-No. 22 Stony Brook.

“There are unbelievable coaches and really good talent top to bottom in this league,” Wildcats interim coach Ricky Santos said. “But there’s an expectation about why you come to the University of New Hampshire and it’s to win tough games like that.

“So we didn’t look at it as an upset. We just looked at it as the next opportunity on our relentless chase of greatness and we’re just trying to do that day in and day out, stay in the moment, play tough and play for one another. And it just was another opportunity to prove ourselves and we were excited to get the win against a tough team.”

And that’s the approach most programs in the league take.

There aren’t many in rebuilding mode, though, William & Mary is in transition with coach Mike London in his first year at the helm after former coach Jimmye Laycock stepped away this offseason following 39 years in the same job.

“And we’ve played some tough games,” said London, whose Tribe fell to Albany by just eight points and Villanova by only a touchdown. “… Our team has done a really good job of never quitting and being competitive like playing Villanova in our last game down to the last seconds with an opportunity to tie the score, and obviously [Villanova] played JMU tough.”

Maine coach Nick Charlton said: “These things happen and you have ranked teams that are up there and there are plenty of teams fighting to get into that, so there’s a lot of talent in the league and it’s not too surprising to see upsets happen.”

So the Dukes, who forced four fourth-quarter turnovers to beat then-No. 5 Villanova on Saturday and who have showcased the qualities of a team destined for the postseason, have officially been warned by what happened throughout their conference last week.

“You’ve got to show up to play every single week and do the things you’ve got to do to be successful,” Cignetti said, “because there were a lot of shocking scores last week that shocked me and that’s why you’ve got to show up and be ready to play.”