Third Div. A Poll due Wed, March 22nd...

[Dan Wishengrad]

Ok I officially give up! When the cat comes back inside I'm letting it make my picks for me...

[lil lady lax fan]

Ok I officially give up! When the cat comes back inside I'm letting it make my picks for me...

I find it extremely amusing that the Huskies coach even OWNS a cat!!!

Good luck to your cat on his/her picks!

[benji]

Colorado should not be penalized for starting their season late and the same goes for NorthEastern and other teams that start late but deserve rankings. If I can remind you, Colorado showed that they can play with the elite of the MDIA last year at the tourney and have returned almost everyone from that team.

Agreed, they should not be penalized, however, they shouldn't be 'rewarded' either. The trouble with the poll system is that its quite difficult, as we all know, to rate a team who hasn't been thouroughly tested by teams on both sides of their ranking.

From what I saw at the Plano Shootout, Colorado looked very talented, as they typically do it seems, however, its my opinion that both the CU/A&M and CU/Tech games could have potentially taken a different direction, as Colorado looked solid but flat for most of regulation in both games... of course bearing in mind that those games were Colorado's first few games of the season; not aided by the fact that they were on the road.

Summing this all up: I think Colorado's ranking in the latter end of the Top Ten is and will be fairly accurate until they have more games against ranked opponents.

The case for Lindenwood may not be as strong, however. I think we should expect more than a 3-4 goal deficit from the #10 team playing high-teens ranked and unranked teams, all at home and deep into the season. I think it may be a little on the generous side to have Lindenwood placed at #10. This next week of games should tell a lot about the Lindenwood squad, with thier trip to Ann Arbor.

Keep in mind, this opinion comes from the score comparison approach, which fair to say is less than perfect. And of course not to give too much of a cop-out, but we'll just have to wait and see.

[sohotrightnow]

Wow. Lindenwood at #4 huh? I don't think so. Perhaps if they pull off a huge win against Michigan I can see them moving into the top 10, but they don't deserve to be in the top 10 at this point.

They have one convincing win (Eastern Michigan) in 7 games.

- 14-9 over Auburn, who is 6-5.

- 11-7 over SMU, who is 1-4. Texas Tech beat SMU by 2 goals in their season opener and I believe Tech has improved over the course of the year, while Lindenwood played SMU recently. This certainly does not help validate Lindenwood having a high ranking.

- 13-8 over Oakland, who is 4-1, yet does not have any wins over ranked teams.

- 12-9 over Northeastern, who is 2-1. On a side note, I noticed that NE does not play a game for an entire month according to their schedule. Is that true?

- 13-11 over Illinois, who is 2-1 and not ranked.

- 19-4 over Eastern Michigan, who is 1-7.

- 14-10 over Minnesota!!!! Minnesota lost to Cal Poly 21-7 and Minnesota lost to LMU 10-7!!! FYI, LMU is 3-7. This close win really illustrates why Lindenwood should not be ranked #4.

I think a ranking of 15-20 is about right for Lindenwood right now. If they score a couple upsets this weekend then they should justifiably move up in the rankings.

Also, why so much hate for Colorado? They started the season at #7 and they have not lost, so why are most people suggesting that they should be removed from the top 10...makes no sense.

[Dan Wishengrad]

I find it extremely amusing that the Huskies coach even OWNS a cat!!! !

Cathi does any human "own" a cat? This feline sure as heck owns ME

[Tim Gray]

- 12-9 over Northeastern, who is 2-1. On a side note, I noticed that NE does not play a game for an entire month according to their schedule. Is that true?

This is true, our last game was against MN on Feb 26th, and our next game is this Sunday March 26th (we did have an unofficial scrimmage with DIII Wentworth in there). Normally, up here in teh Northeast, the ground is still snow covered until late March. In the past we've scheduled earlier in March and always had to reschedule games, so this year we started later, and we had the mildest winter in years. Go Figure. We're itching to get back out on the field.

[Dr. Jason Stockton]

Colorado is a very good team, and as I said before, if they win one of their next games, they will prove that. Lindenwood has not proven anything as of yet, and is very hard to even place in the top 10. This is the same for Oregon. No question that they too are a good team, but that is not yet proven. There is an argument for them being between maybe 6-12, but how have they proved they should be in the top 5? Certainly not by beating any top 5 or top 10 teams. Let Oregon, like everyone else that started high in the polls, EARN THEIR SPOT. This is not done by beating Stanford, Boise State, Idaho, etc.

Joker, I think you are way off on the Ducks. . .you mention Stanford, Boise and Idaho, but failed to mention SFU, UMD, Chico and Texas wins. . .They are 10-0 with only one team that has really pushed them at this point, and that is their league-rival Simon Fraser. You suggested they haven't beat anyone to earn a top-5 ranking, but a 13-4 win over UMD and a 9-3 win over Chico certainly suggests that Oregon belongs in the top-10, and they are deserving of their ranking thus far.

They have games on the schedule against NDNU, Sonoma, Cal Poly and BYU. . .so they still have a lot to prove and some great opportunities to show us how good they are. . .but to suggest they haven't done anything to earn their ranking is absurd.

[WaterBoy]

Of course he has a cat. He probably has a lot of them.

What do you think he feeds the Huskie?

[benji]

Joker, I think you are way off on the Ducks. . .you mention Stanford, Boise and Idaho, but failed to mention SFU, UMD, Chico and Texas wins. . .They are 10-0 with only one team that has really pushed them at this point, and that is their league-rival Simon Fraser.

So a 15-11 win over unranked Texas doesn't raise any eyebrows? From what I heard it was a pretty good game for a UT team that earlier lost one to Oregon State (unranked). Seems to me a 4 goal lead for a top ten team over an unranked team is a little concerning... food for thought.

[WaterBoy]

Just as a thought as I was going through rankings-

and before I get slammed for "lauding" a team- I have no affiliation here, other than as an observer of probably more games than is healthy.

I think a team being vastly overlooked so far has to be UCLA. I'm not making the claim that they're top 10, but I also have seen them play and believe they are solidly a top 15 contender. There is a lot of talk about how good of a team Chapman is- and I think it's correct. But I also think that UCLA should be up there with them.

I know it's tough, since UCLA is one of the teams with overlapping wins- they beat Chapman by 8, who beat Arizona by 8, who beat UCLA by 2.

The downside for the Bruins is that the rest of their schedule isn't as loaded, but they do face off against Santa Barbara- which I'm becoming convinced will be a better and better game.

Just figured I would try to give them a fair shake, since I've seen them play more than once and was very impressed- and I think they may be getting overshadowed by the coverage Chapman has been getting.

just my .02

[Timbalaned]

Joker, I think you are way off on the Ducks. . .you mention Stanford, Boise and Idaho, but failed to mention SFU, UMD, Chico and Texas wins. . .They are 10-0 with only one team that has really pushed them at this point, and that is their league-rival Simon Fraser.

So a 15-11 win over unranked Texas doesn't raise any eyebrows? From what I heard it was a pretty good game for a UT team that earlier lost one to Oregon State (unranked). Seems to me a 4 goal lead for a top ten team over an unranked team is a little concerning... food for thought.

They lost to OSU after us. And second I know this is going to sound quite obvious but they got really up for that game and then maybe not as up for the OSU game, if that makes sense. I have been on good teams before, but never really one that has been "the team to beat" in the eyes of a lot of opponets until this year. I have seen more teams get up for their games against us and then look nothing like the team we played the next day. I don't know if that is testament to us not getting up enough for our games or them just getting over-hyped for theirs. But either way I think that is a factor when it comes to looking at lower ranked teams against higher ranked teams.

[sohotrightnow]

Well it could be that Texas deserves to be ranked. However, that 13-4 win over UMD is looking pretty good now considering UMD knocked off Utah and Cal Poly. I think Oregon deserves to be ranked in the top 5-7.

[TajMahalLAX]

I agree with the Texas deserving to be ranked statement. They are a solid team with a lot of drive. Any team that can post a win on a respectable UMD team deserves some props in the form of a top 25 bid. On the topic of the Oregon Ducks I feel that only time will tell the potential for those dudes. After posting huge numbers with every man on that roster, the Ducks are ready to fly. I'd say top 5 on Wednesday morning.

[steveperry]

The ducks should play at least one team in the top 12 before they are given a top 5 ranking. The win over Duluth is a good one, but Duluth still does not fall into that top 12 category at this point. SFU, Chico and Minn. hardly count as huge games worthy of the top five. The Ducks are a talented team, but let's reward them when they prove that against Sonoma or BYU. Then, I will welcome them into that spot. Until then, I think they belong between 6-10 respectfully.

[CATLAX MAN]

I think a team being vastly overlooked so far has to be UCLA. I'm not making the claim that they're top 10, but I also have seen them play and believe they are solidly a top 15 contender.

Sorry, Waterboy, but there's no way UCLA is anywhere near the top 15. In addition to their loss to UCSD, they already have losses to Michigan State & Arizona who should both out of the top 15 in this poll. On what basis is their claim to be that high? I don't see it.