Next Div. A Top 25 poll

[Aaron Myers]

It is important to keep in mind that many of these teams are better or worse than they were at the beginning of the season. The poll should reflect the current status of a team at the time of the poll. That being said, i think that Arizona's lopsided losses to Chapman and Michigan still hurt them in the eyes of some pollsters. I believe that they are a dangerous team that could go far in the playoffs. These last upsets by Utah and BYU, respectively, has shown that this years championship is up for grabs and that any team can win on any given day. I would like to hear anyones thoughts as to why FSU or Oregon deserve to be in the top ten. They are the only two teams in the top ten without wins over top ten opponents. Seems to me that this should be a prerequisite for being in the top ten this late in the season.

[gobblerlax05]

1 Sonoma State 13 66.79 11- 2- 0
2 Colorado State 9 65.78 8- 1- 0
3 Michigan 12 65.34 11- 1- 0
4 Brigham Young 11 65.33 7- 4- 0
5 Colorado 11 65.03 10- 1- 0
6 UC Santa Barbara 14 64.42 9- 5- 0
7 UC San Diego 13 63.03 10- 3- 0
8 Arizona 13 62.00 9- 4- 0
9 Oakland 13 61.46 8- 5- 0
10 Florida State 15 61.37 14- 1- 0
11 Virginia Tech 11 59.51 8- 3- 0
12 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 15 59.06 10- 5- 0
13 Oregon 14 58.95 11- 3- 0
14 Lindenwood 14 58.83 12- 2- 0
15 Georgia 11 58.77 9- 2- 0
16 Utah

[gobblerlax05]

Team Record Points Place Week

1 Colorado State 9- 2- 0 749 29 1
2 Sonoma State 10- 1- 0 716 2
3 Michigan 9- 3- 0 695 1 3
4 UC Santa Barbara 6- 4- 0 646 6
5 UC San Diego 9- 3- 0 603 5
6 Brigham Young 6- 5- 0 587 8
7 Oregon 11- 3- 0 566 4
8 Colorado 8- 2- 0 558 7
9 Florida State 13- 3- 0 524 9
10 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 8- 5- 0 452 13
11 Arizona 8- 4- 0 427 15
12 Lindenwood 8- 2- 0 401 10
13 Utah 7- 4- 0 366 14
14 Virginia Tech 7- 3- 0 327 12
15 Minnesota - Duluth 6- 3- 0 319 11
16 Georgia Tech 11- 2- 0 303 16

[steveperry]

It is important to keep in mind that many of these teams are better or worse than they were at the beginning of the season. The poll should reflect the current status of a team at the time of the poll. That being said, i think that Arizona's lopsided losses to Chapman and Michigan still hurt them in the eyes of some pollsters. .

That is the thing about Arizona this year. Utah beat them by one (that seems to be their trademark) right after a 3 day Utah trip that included a win at BYU. That can be understood. I saw their Chapman game, and I think it could have been a much worse beating if Chapman didn't put in their bench half way into the third quarter.

Then, Arizona beats an overanked Lindenwood and gets killed by Michigan. They then later beat UCSB at their home field, a huge win.

To say the least, it is very hard to read this Arizona team.

While we are talking about hard teams to read, Utah is certainly another one. Like Arizona, they have a couple of big poundings, a 7 goal win from chapman and a 10 goal win from CSU. They also have a one goal loss from an unranked Chico State from earlier in the season. They have 3 big wins this season, all by one goal.

The first win was against Arizona after Arizona just played two games in a row. The second was against Cal Poly in another one point game. Now the third against Sonoma in a snow filled game. I am not sure if half the Sonoma boys knew what that white stuff all over was.

Wins like last night are big ones, but I just don't feel like Utah could pull off a first round upset against a big team in the tournament.

[ME]

Joker,
I don't understand why your trying to talk down teams such as Zona and Utah for their wins against big teams. One goal games in my personal opinon say just as much as any other game. One goal games show that a team can handle the pressure when it comes down to it, especially against top ranked teams like Noma and Cal Poly. I think that it is absurd that you can sit on your computer and cut down teams for big wins such as upsets like Zona over UCSB and Utah over Noma. If you had seen both of these teams play in person, which I have, you would not be writing degrading comments about their big wins whether they were by one or ten goals, like you did in the post above. I think Utah has proven themselves worthy of some respect because in the end a "W" is a "W" and they have 3 "w's" against TOP 12 teams.
P.S. If you read the comments by the Noma team on the USLIA Game website then you will realize that it wasn't a blizzard in fact not even snowing at all at the Noma/Utah game last night and it wasn't even an issue once the game began.

[Dulax31]

Where is the love for our ONLY undefeated A team in the USL-MDIA, Illinois State (some sarcasm)?? Man, who would have guess they would be the only undefeated A team at this time...

[steveperry]

I don't understand why your trying to talk down teams such as Zona and Utah for their wins against big teams. One goal games in my personal opinon say just as much as any other game. One goal games show that a team can handle the pressure when it comes down to it, especially against top ranked teams like Noma and Cal Poly.

No talking down the wins. As I have stated over and over, a win is a win. Plus, this is not Zona and Utah put in the same grouping. I guess when I said about Arizona, "They then later beat UCSB at their home field, a huge win," I wasn't being clear that was a huge win. Arizona has simply been inconsistent by beating teams by good scores (not by one), but also being beat by scores of 8 or more. They are certainly a team that can win big games.

Utah is an interesting case, because they have 3 wins all by one goal, not just one. All of their big wins are by one goal. Unlike Michigan and Colorado State, they have not shown that they can have truly definitive wins. One goal says they stuck with it and came through, but that it might have gone both ways. A win by 4 may say that they really did control the game. It is not a science, and it is not about running up the scores. As I said in my post, "Wins like last night are big ones, but I just don't feel like Utah could pull off a first round upset against a big team in the tournament." (By big one, I mean it was important. Just wanted to clear that up). Utah is a team that is much improved, but I do not think that they can go into Texas and pull off a first round upset. Not when the team they might pull, CSU, beat them by 10 goals. If they did pull it off, then more power to them. I am not rooting against them.

Arizona, on the other hand, I think has a chance at a first round win.


If you had seen both of these teams play in person, which I have, you would not be writing degrading comments about their big wins whether they were by one or ten goals, like you did in the post above.

I have seen both teams play in multiple games this year. I saw Arizona beat BYU by 2 and then lose badly to Chapman. I saw Utah lose to now unranked Chico State and then get beat by 7 goals against Chapman. I wish that I was able to see them play more this year, but I spent so much money on my super computer that I sit in front of all day calculating stats, that I am not able to travel too far.


P.S. If you read the comments by the Noma team on the USLIA Game website then you will realize that it wasn't a blizzard in fact not even snowing at all at the Noma/Utah game last night and it wasn't even an issue once the game began.

I don't remember mentioning a blizzard, only that Utah had to wipe the snow off the field before the game, as the report says. That probably means there was snow, something that doesn't usually happen up in Sonoma.

[Karl Lynch]

Sometimes I think we may be having the wrong argument.

The great part about the way our national tournament is structured is that the conference tournaments are HUGE in figuring out who goes where.

For example a UCSD win in the WCLL playoffs put them as a #2 in Dallas, pollsters be damned forcing Sonoma, UCSB, and Cal Poly into middle bracket matchups. A BYU win in the RMLC playoffs and it becomes middle bracket seeding for CSU and Colorado.

Here are the playoff games that should make bubble teams nervous.

Oregon v. anyone.
FSU v. anyone
Lindenwood v. anyone
Michigan v. anyone

A loss by any of these teams in the conference tournament bursts the bubble because now we have two teams from a conference that was only supposed to have one rep. If Oakland beats Michigan, one at large bid is gone. If Simon Fraser beats OU, another at large bid is gone. If G tech beats FSU, yet another at large bid is gone. That's right, Michigan, OU, and FSU will get the at large bids way before the 10-13 teams in the polls. Add in the AQ's from the UMLL, LSA, and PCLL and you get one at large bid from the teams ranked #10-25.

Bubble teams need to pray for conferences to be won by the highest ranked teams to even have a chance.

Am I far off here?

[Danny Hogan]

Utah is an interesting case, because they have 3 wins all by one goal, not just one. All of their big wins are by one goal. Unlike Michigan and Colorado State, they have not shown that they can have truly definitive wins.

that is a valid argument if Utah was getting ranked as the #3 team in the country, they are not.

Compare them to the teams ranked in their neighborhood.

[ME]

Utah wasn't even suppose to beat AZ, Poly and Noma.... In that case a one goal win is more than expected. You are acting as if teams are going to win the win needs to be by more than 1 or 2 to prove they are worthy of a better ranking. If a team is the underdog they are not suppose to win.... when a #13 team beats a #2 team I don't care who it is or how much it was by.

TheJoker wrote:

Utah is an interesting case, because they have 3 wins all by one goal, not just one. All of their big wins are by one goal. Unlike Michigan and Colorado State, they have not shown that they can have truly definitive wins.


that is a valid argument if Utah was getting ranked as the #3 team in the country, they are not.

Compare them to the teams ranked in their neighborhood.

Look at Poly who is still ranked a head of them, lost to them and also lost to UMD like them. I think they also lost to Noma by not just 1 but 5.

Also,

I have seen both teams play in multiple games this year. I saw Arizona beat BYU by 2 and then lose badly to Chapman. I saw Utah lose to now unranked Chico State and then get beat by 7 goals against Chapman. I wish that I was able to see them play more this year, but I spent so much money on my super computer that I sit in front of all day calculating stats, that I am not able to travel too far.

True, they did stink out in California but that was their first two games of the season and if you were at the Chapman game you would realize the game was alot closer than 7 goals. In fact I think it was a back and forth game all the way until a couple minutes into the fourth quarter. Utah is an entirely different team now then they were at the beginning of the season (when you saw them) and I would not say that they could not pull an upset in Texas.

[steveperry]

Honestly, I hope they can shake some things up. It would be great to have some upsets in the league tournaments. The crazy thing about this year is that there are very few teams that have not lost games that they should have won. The number 18 teams beats the number 4 team, the number 13 beats the number 2 team, cats and dogs living together, mass histeria...

[BB]

Illinois State out to get some love on the next poll.

[Bluevelvet]

With Michigan losing in the CCLA semi's, There will be one less at large spot available on the bubble.
Oregon
Cal Poly
Utah
One of those teams will probably be out. Oregon is a favorite for the PNCLL AQ. Cal Poly is still alive in the WCLL. Utah has been eliminated by CSU.

[cjwilhelmi]

Illinois State out to get some love on the next poll.

Not anymore, lost today to U of Illinois in the GRLC Semi's

[lex]

With Michigan losing in the CCLA semi's, There will be one less at large spot available on the bubble.
Oregon
Cal Poly
Utah
One of those teams will probably be out. Oregon is a favorite for the PNCLL AQ. Cal Poly is still alive in the WCLL. Utah has been eliminated by CSU.

Don't count Utah out yet!