Absolutely, they can. But then Denver needs an at-large and unless they slip up twice in their remaining three games against non-T20 type teams... they're (Denver) a lock for that too. So there would be one fewer at-large bid available.
Unless you're constructing a scenario where:
Georgetown wins the Big East AQ *and* the bottom absolutely falls out for Penn State somehow.
I don't see a world where Georgetown is in the NCAA tournament and the Ivy League is a 3 bid league because PSU has relevant head to heads over whichever of either of Cornell/Yale they'd be compared to for the bubble.
If Georgetown wins the Big East AQ, it will be either an Ivy League team or Penn State being squeezed out.
(Syracuse appeared nowhere in this scenario until now.)
Maybe I have a lack of imagination, but I just don't see how this is relevant to Syracuse. They have two top 5 wins. That is an extremely rare feat, those will hold as top 5 wins in all likelihood and at the absolute worst, one of them becomes a top 10 win instead. They will likely finish with an RPI around 6th/7th/8th. The only remote chance that any losses becomes a bad loss is Army. The committee has not historically punished teams for one bad loss. I don't see any way they are left out.
You have stolen a bit of a march on me. As my post was before the results of yesterday's games. Certainly, Duke getting their usual win over UVa and Hopkins eking out an overtime victory over OSU, makes it seem like a sure thing that Duke and Hopkins remain top 5 rpi. Further ND beating Cornell has major ramifications.
So Syracuse could have had just a top 5 and a 6-10 victory. Certainly, Syracuse's other top 20 win, #18 Colgate, looks a little iffy and could drop out of the top 20.
So assuming Syracuse had happened to lose their last 2 games of the season:
Assuming, Denver wins their other games, a loss to Georgetown in the BE final would not hurt Denver's RPI much. Denver would have RPI wins over Hopkins, Cornell, Georgetown, and OSU. Cornell's RPI would have been higher if Cornell had beaten ND. I think Denver gets the nod over Syracuse.
If Cornell had beaten ND, their RPI would be like #7. They would have had wins over ND, Yale, and Syracuse and look like a lock. Yale has wins over Denver, Penn, Harvard, Colgate, Villanova. Penn has wins over Duke, Cornell, Harvard. All I need is the situation that Penn or Yale gets Cornell in the 1st round of the Ivy league tmt and beats them - but the other one of them wins the Ivy league tmt for the AQ - to possibly have gotten all three Ivies in front of Syracuse.
With the Big Ten, I have an AQ to work with also, say for PSU or even Michigan or OSU - then I would just need another good win for UMd or JHU.
Given that Cornell lost to ND. Cornell needs to a good win to be a lock. It is now hard to get three Ivies in front of Syracuse - so I think Syracuse is probably a lock now. Although, I am sure that Syracuse doesn't want to leave it up to the selection committee, and wants to get 1 more victory to make sure they are in.
Of course, UVa has just 1 top 10 victory (UMd) and a loss to Syracuse could put UVa in the hot seat.
