Lax World MCLA Div 1 Top 25 Poll (3/26/08) is out!

[Danny Hogan]

Would it kill someone from the west coast to say.....Gee, maybe UCSB is overrated and the Florida schools are a bit underrated.

I did say that UCSB was overrated right now. I don't agree with the second part of your statement because, while the UCSB win is a nice one for the Gators, they still have the LMU loss on their resume and those, IMO, tend to offset them. I think they are rated about right.........which is what I said.

i think the UGA win and BC loss suggests they should be in the 15-16 range, but 2-3 spots is nothing to mention publicly unless you are in the top 10.

[UkraineNotWeak]

1.Chapman
2.Arizona State
These 2 stick out more than any others
3.Loyola Marymount
4.Sonoma State (?)
5.UCSB
6.Stanford
7.Claremont Colleges
8.Santa Clara (?)
9.Cal Poly (?)
10.SDSU

1. Chapman
2. Arizona State
3. Sonoma
4. UCSB
5. Cal Poly
6. LMU
7. Stanford
8. Santa Clara
9. Chico/Arizona/SDSU/Cal

[Ravaging Beast]

1.Chapman
2.Arizona State
These 2 stick out more than any others
3.Loyola Marymount
4.Sonoma State (?)
5.UCSB
6.Stanford
7.Claremont Colleges
8.Santa Clara (?)
9.Cal Poly (?)
10.SDSU

1. Chapman
2. Arizona State
3. Sonoma
4. UCSB
5. Cal Poly
6. LMU
7. Stanford
8. Santa Clara
9. Chico/Arizona/SDSU/Cal

That is more realistic.

[univduke21]

With the games that have recently occured this is how I would look at the top 15 (15 because 1 AQ is outside the top 16)

1. Michigan
2. Chapman
3. Minnesota-Duluth
4. Colorado State
5. Oregon
6. BYU
7. Simon Fraser
8. Sonoma State
9. Colorado
10. Arizona State
11. Florida State
12. Boston College
13. UCSB
14. Florida
15. Loyola Marymount

Let the discussions begin!

[scooter]

With the games that have recently occured this is how I would look at the top 15 (15 because 1 AQ is outside the top 16)

1. Michigan
2. Chapman
3. Minnesota-Duluth
4. Colorado State
5. Oregon
6. BYU
7. Simon Fraser
8. Sonoma State
9. Colorado
10. Arizona State
11. Florida State
12. Boston College
13. UCSB
14. Florida
15. Loyola Marymount

Let the discussions begin!

you actually have 2 AQs outside of the top 15....so maybe you go with a top 14?

[Zamboni_Driver]

With the games that have recently occured this is how I would look at the top 15 (15 because 1 AQ is outside the top 16)

1. Michigan
2. Chapman
3. Minnesota-Duluth
4. Colorado State
5. Oregon
6. BYU
7. Simon Fraser
8. Sonoma State
9. Colorado
10. Arizona State
11. Florida State
12. Boston College
13. UCSB
14. Florida
15. Loyola Marymount

Let the discussions begin!

LMU and UCSB won't both be at nationals...(atleast in my world they won't). If I understand the WCLL tournament, only two of the following will go to the WCLL tourney from their division: Chapman, UCSB, LMU.

Which brings up the question - can a team that doesn't make its league tournament be eligible for nationals?? And if yes, do you give them an imaginary loss to the champion or not and is that fair to T16 teams in other conferences that, say, lose to a higher team in their league championship??

Interesting dilemma if LMU wins out, and so does UCSB except for a loss to LMU.

[SoCalLaxDoctor]

With the games that have recently occured this is how I would look at the top 15 (15 because 1 AQ is outside the top 16)

1. Michigan
2. Chapman
3. Minnesota-Duluth
4. Colorado State
5. Oregon
6. BYU
7. Simon Fraser
8. Sonoma State
9. Colorado
10. Arizona State
11. Florida State
12. Boston College
13. UCSB
14. Florida
15. Loyola Marymount

Let the discussions begin!

After number 1 and 2 Its a crap shoot. A testament to parity in the MCLA, at least for the dedicated programs. Most of these teams are capable of competing at a very high level with similarly situated NCAA DI (bottom 1/2) DII and DIII programs.

[PigPen]

Which brings up the question - can a team that doesn't make its league tournament be eligible for nationals?? And if yes, do you give them an imaginary loss to the champion or not and is that fair to T16 teams in other conferences that, say, lose to a higher team in their league championship??

this has come close to happening in the past but if it happens this year-it should be interesting.

Maybe the voters would look at that for the last poll and bump that team down just a tad and thus knock them out of at large bid.

personally IMO I think if the team really does earn that spot, and they just happen to fall in that situation, then they should get that at large spot

When it comes to polls, I worry less about Team A beat Team B because in our world Team C also probably beat Team A, but lost to B,so I try to look at the big scheme of things, where do they belong.

[univduke21]

I think that you have to let a team in, even if they miss their conference tournament if they are in the top 16 (minus outisde top 16 AQ's). IF you have a strong conference then they should be represented.

[Zamboni_Driver]

I just don't know how you'd compare 2 teams hovering around 14th ( team A) to 16th (team B), fighting for the last spot, where Team A misses their conference tourney, and Team B beats a team in the quarters, beats a T18-22 in the semi-finals, and loses a close one to a T10 in the finals.

[Maple Leaf]

I think that you have to let a team in, even if they miss their conference tournament if they are in the top 16 (minus outisde top 16 AQ's). IF you have a strong conference then they should be represented.

This normally wouldn't be the case because individual conferences are not strong enough to have multiple teams ranked fighting for playoff spots.

The only place where this is relevant is in the WCLL LA Division, where you currently have 4 top 25 teams fighting for 2 playoff spots. There won't be any other top 25 teams missing out on their conference playoffs nationally, but 2 will from this division. Ultimately, at the end of the year this could end up being 3 teams ranked in the top 25, but still a very unfortunate case for that team.

The UCSB/LMU game will be huge, with the losing team missing the WCLL playoffs. Ultimately this conference needs to be realigned. There are 6 teams in this division, and 5 or 4 in the other 3 divisions... seems like an easy fix to me. I think based upon what is going to happen this year it is very likely that division realignment will happen next year.

[Danny Hogan]

i think the individual conferences should look at their playoff structure in order to (for their own good) put as many teams in the national tourney as possible.

it is also possible this year in the SELC south, one of UF, FSU, UCF missing the playoffs. if UCF beats UF this friday, and then UF beats FSU the following friday (3 way tie, 2 teams go) it is possible that either UF or FSU (both could be in the 14-15 range after that) miss the SELC playoffs.

i know it is a stretch but to add another if...if UF and UCF had a few games go differently this year we could be talking about teams in the top 10-13 not going to their conference playoffs (UF's 1 goal losses to BC and LMU, though UCF has a few damaging losses).

I point that out because i don't think there would be a huge outcry in SELC land if the #14 or #15 team missed it, but if the conference had the #11 team miss the conference playoffs and then miss the national playoff because of that i bet it would garner some discussion of how they (SELC) select their playoff teams.

The WCLL could face something like that this year....

[ineedmorecowbell]

haha. utah beating cu 12-7 should make matters worse for the pollsters.

[CPLaxGM]

haha. utah beating cu 12-7 should make matters worse for the pollsters.

That might be the most surprising score I've seen this week, and there's been plenty of head-scratchers.

How exactly does Utah come off a 3 game losing streak in California and then win in Colorado? I don't even have a guess as to how that affects the next poll.

[ineedmorecowbell]

utah has the talent this year to be great--it's just a matter of putting things together mentally. besides, that's utah's calling card. we're good for at least one upset a year.