Next Div. A Top 25 poll

[lil lady lax fan]

Joker

Would please stop referring to the University of San Diego as an unranked team. They are the #1 ranked team in the B division and thus do have a ranking. True, it is not a ranking in the A division but to call them unranked is basely unfair to the merits and skills of this team. I think referring to them as the "#1-ranked team in the B-division" or "B division #1" are more appropriate titles.

[NomaBlueCollar]

agreed. USD would give most of the teams in the A division a pretty good run for their money

[steveperry]

Joker

Would please stop referring to the University of San Diego as an unranked team. They are the #1 ranked team in the B division and thus do have a ranking. True, it is not a ranking in the A division but to call them unranked is basely unfair to the merits and skills of this team. I think referring to them as the "#1-ranked team in the B-division" or "B division #1" are more appropriate titles.

I am sorry, but I will not. This is not because they are not a good team, but THEY ARE NOT A DIV A RANKED TEAM. They are well coached and run a solid program, but again, they are not an A team in the top 25. We could speculate how could they could be in the A div, but they are not in the A div. Their win against USC is nothing to write home about. Claremont did that same thing as well. Clearly, their one goal win against UCSD was. At the same time, and if we are speculating, I think that if they played UCSD or most other competitive team's schedules, they might not break .500. When a top 5 team loses to a "B" team, it is a big deal.

[stillwater killa]

So Oregon stays steady despite being embarrassed by BYU? And Colorado is still behind BYU despite beating them? Sounds logical......

[FredaFelcher]

Just a guess at what the top ten might look like.

1.SSU
2.CSU
3.Michigan
4.UCSB
5.Colorado
6.BYU
7.UCSD
8.FSU
9.Cal Poly
10.Oregon

[lil lady lax fan]

Joker

Would please stop referring to the University of San Diego as an unranked team. They are the #1 ranked team in the B division and thus do have a ranking. True, it is not a ranking in the A division but to call them unranked is basely unfair to the merits and skills of this team. I think referring to them as the "#1-ranked team in the B-division" or "B division #1" are more appropriate titles.

No I will not. This is not because they are not a good team, but THEY ARE NOT A DIV A RANKED TEAM. We could speculate how could they could be in the A div, but they are not in the A div. Their win against USC is nothing to write home about. Claremont did that same thing as well. Clearly, their one goal win against UCSD was. At the same time, and if we are speculating, I think that if they played UCSD or most other competitive team's schedules, they might not break .500. When a top 5 team loses to a "B" team, it is a big deal.

From your statement it is obvious you've never seen these guys in action. And for the record Claremont is just as good of a team, as are the other three in the top five of the B division. I suggest that you take into consideration that Claremont played NDNU in much the same conditions that Oregon did and ended up -- score-wise -- in the same ballpark (5-13 vs 8-15). The NDNU coach even commented on the similarities, with respect to the level of play, of those two teams. I'm not saying Claremont would beat Oregon, just that the match up would've been a competitive one. San Diego beat Claremont by a score of 6-3 and, aside from a close loss to St. John (#3 B) very early in the season, has soundly trounced the remainder of their opponents. There were also quite a few comments flying at Nationals last year about how they could've taken on quite a few of the A teams in the rankings (not the top ten but pretty close). This year's team is certainly on a par with last year's team. I think that might give you an idea of how good these teams are.

Stop slighting the B teams just because they aren't playing in the hallowed halls of the A division. They play in the B division because they are small schools, not because they are lesser in any respect to their bigger brethern.

[Sonny]

Joker

Thanks for taking the time to assemble that information in one spot.

I'd love to see that list of information updated on Sunday, April 30th when all of the conference championships are finishing up for the final poll vote on Monday, May 1st. You should expand your "coverage" to the Top 25 or 30. I know it probably won't make a difference for the final few at-large bids. But if team like Minnesota-Duluth or Northeastern stumbles or at any last minute suprises... things could get interesting.

Stay tuned....

[Sonny]

So Oregon stays steady despite being embarrassed by BYU? And Colorado is still behind BYU despite beating them? Sounds logical......

He was quoting the teams in their poll position from April 5th.

[Hackalicious]

Which teams might drop out of the next top 25 poll? After beating UCLA, Cal might move into the mix.

I guess the >20 ranked teams are pretty much out of the hunt for nationals, unless they upset someone in their league playoffs.

[TrainerDan]

Just a guess at what the top ten might look like.

1.SSU
2.CSU
3.Michigan
4.UCSB
5.Colorado
6.BYU
7.UCSD
8.FSU
9.Cal Poly
10.Oregon

Here's my top ten:

1. CSU: Much tougher overall schedule than Michigan has played and beat SSU head-to-head
2. SSU: Close but still think the head to head loss to CSU keeps them at #2
3. Michigan: Loss to BYU was the first game but it was still a loss and they have not played as difficult a schedule as CSU or Sonoma
4. BYU: Win over previously unbeaten CSU on the road and a thrashing of then #7 Oregon since the last poll, loss to CU makes this a little shaky but it was still a tight ball game
5. UCSB: Big loss to Arizona and not so stellar performance against ASU drop them
6. Colorado: Big win over BYU but what else have they done? Game with CSU will tell us a lot
7. FSU: Playing well over the last 2 weeks
8. Cal Poly: A real dark horse team. Watch out for them in Plano
9. UCSD: Loss to Div. B USD should drop them
10. Oregon: Very poor showing in Provo and not playing well at this stage of the season

[Bluevelvet]

Joker-
Thanks for assembling all the information. Your research and effort are appreciated. Very Nice post.
I have one thought on goal differential as an indicator of the relative power of a team. It's not very worthwhile statistic because it is biased toward "run and gun" offensive teams. As we all know from the last 3 years, "run and gun" does not win championships. Teams like UCSB and Michigan, that possess the ball and play defense, have been much more successful than a team like Florida St or Texas A&M that rely on offense to win. Possession teams usually do not have large goal differentials because they are disciplined and refuse to play "drive, dodge and shoot" even if it is easy to score.
Another problem with goal differential is that it is sometimes misleading. eg. when Sonoma put in an empty net goal in the waning moments against UCSB it doubled the goal differential to 2.
Another example is when a team with a long roster starts to get pretty far down the depth chart in the fourth quarter, they give up a few meaningless goals that the starters would never have allowed. Thus making a blow out into a closer game.
But, a blowout win or loss is a pretty significant statistic if it is against top opposition.

[TrainerDan]

So Oregon stays steady despite being embarrassed by BYU? And Colorado is still behind BYU despite beating them? Sounds logical......

Don't forget though that BYU beat CSU just the day before the loss to CU. Nobody else in the nation has beaten CSU this year...or even Michigan...other than BYU. That's how I can justify keeping CU behind BYU.

[NomaBlueCollar]

Sonoma State just suffered a 10-9 loss to Utah.

[TrainerDan]

Just a guess at what the top ten might look like.

1.SSU
2.CSU
3.Michigan
4.UCSB
5.Colorado
6.BYU
7.UCSD
8.FSU
9.Cal Poly
10.Oregon

Here's my top ten:

1. CSU: Much tougher overall schedule than Michigan has played and beat SSU head-to-head
2. SSU: Close but still think the head to head loss to CSU keeps them at #2
3. Michigan: Loss to BYU was the first game but it was still a loss and they have not played as difficult a schedule as CSU or Sonoma
4. BYU: Win over previously unbeaten CSU on the road and a thrashing of then #7 Oregon since the last poll, loss to CU makes this a little shaky but it was still a tight ball game
5. UCSB: Big loss to Arizona and not so stellar performance against ASU drop them
6. Colorado: Big win over BYU but what else have they done? Game with CSU will tell us a lot
7. FSU: Playing well over the last 2 weeks
8. Cal Poly: A real dark horse team. Watch out for them in Plano
9. UCSD: Loss to Div. B USD should drop them
10. Oregon: Very poor showing in Provo and not playing well at this stage of the season

Well in a matter of minutes this post becomes totally different. Utah upsets Sonoma tonight and that makes this week's poll ven more interesting.

[steveperry]

So Oregon stays steady despite being embarrassed by BYU? And Colorado is still behind BYU despite beating them? Sounds logical......

I think Oregon drops back to 9 or 10. They have lost three in a row. Cal Poly was ranked far below them during that loss, and BYU was nothing close.

BYU and Colorado are the tough ones to place. Beating the number one team in the country should not be taken lightely. Then, losing the next day, as we have talked about before, can happen even to the best of teams. Seeing what BYU has done so far, beating a number of top 10 teams, I think they are still ahead of Colorado by maybe a spot. If Colorado beats Colorado State this weekend, the tables will turn.