Sorry I'm late to the party, but I no longer check this email account regularly. As I recall the 
first #16 overall seed to win a game (2 games, actually) was Bemidji in 2009. That year the 
committee swapped them with Ohio State (#15 overall) as a straight 1 vs 16 and 2 vs 15 
would have had OSU playing #2 Notre Dame. So instead BU got OSU and Notre Dame went 
home early. I also believe that Bemidji had an RPI below .500 that year

Sean


On 26 Mar 2016 at 8:18, John T Whelan wrote:

> RIT last year was indeed the first #16 to win.  I was surprised at the
> time, since I had thought Holy Cross in 2006 or RIT in 2010 must have
> been, but they were both #15.  (UAH was #16 in 2010, having won the
> last CHA tournament in a year when Bemidji State was an at-large bid
> at #8.)
> 
> New trivia question (to which I think I just worked out the answer):
> what's the only team with an RPI below .500 to win a game in the
> tournament since they went to 16 games?
> 
>      JTW, Cornell '91
>