4th MDIA Div. A Poll (4/6/05). Thoughts, Predictions, etc.

[CyLaxKeeper00]

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[LaxGuru]

Based on scores: I'll guess at this.

1.Colorado State
2.Sonoma State
3.Brigham Young University
4.Michigan
5.Univ. of California, Santa Barbara
6.Arizona
7.Oakland University
8.Colorado
9.Boston College
10.Oregon
11.Florida State
12.Univ. of California, San Diego
13.Virginia Tech
14.Utah
15.Georgia Tech
16.Chico State
17.Chapman University
18.Pittsburgh
19.Lindenwood University -with Miami(oh) losing,(i have Miami dropping out) causing for the drop
20.Minnesota-Duluth- loss to Miami looks iffy now
21.Washington
22.Cal Poly SLO
23.Simon Fraser University
24.Minnesota
25.New Hampshire-Michigan State (pick-em)

[Riss]

Keep in mind that Miami of Ohio was without their goalie and one defensemen. Is that an excuse for Miami? definately not, they'll prolly drop out of the polls. However, Miami did have those players when playing Lindenwoood and Minnesota-Duluth. Lindenwood's win and Duluth's one goal loss were against a better team, and thats what should be taken into account when deciding their respective rankings.

[Timbalaned]

Florida should be 24 or 25, though their record might not reflect it at 7-5, they are a tough team and played some great games in Michigan...

[If At First...]

UCSD's close two goal victory over Cal Poly in comparison to Utah's six goal win should shake things up a bit. I think there is a battle between these two up and coming teams, but this clear difference should be a factor in the upcoming poll. Perhaps swapping Utah and UCSD positions...12. Utah, 13 or 14. UCSD.

Some match ups I would love to see this year before Blaine...

Lindenwood vs. Oregon
Utah vs. UCSD

I LOVE it that oregon has established themselves as a top ten team. And I would love to see them play a lindenwood team that is vying for a 10-15 spot. I think it would direct us all to a final consensus of Lindenwood's appropriate position in the top 25. Also, a battle of two teams fighting eachother to get to Blaine, Utah and UCSD. If only...sigh.....

[Timbalaned]

Why do you love that Oregon has established themselves as a top ten team??

[Albert Man]

I'd love to see those games too, as well as a few other matchups. I definitely think Utah is a strong team. As some one said it earlier on another post though, if you look at just goal differential you'll go crazy. (for instance BYU beat cal poly by just 3) There are many intangibles... Cal Poly was home against UCSD... Utah was home against Cal Poly and I heard the game was forced to be changed last minute to an 11pm game indoor fieldhouse game). In the end both UCSD and Utah won.

It seems like most people agree on who is in the top 7, and no team outside the top 7 has beaten a top 7 team yet. The teams belonging in 8-20ish have also seemed to have emerged, with some of these teams having a challenging schedule and coming very close to upsetting a top 7 team. These positions are the critical rankings as the precious few at large bids will be decided by these rankings. There have been a few upsets of #8-20 teams by #21+ or unranked teams.

Some teams are lucky enough to be in a league with many ranked opponents and/or travel to play them, and other teams just take care of business with the schedule they have. I think the pollsters have done well to recognize all of this and there's still many games to go.

So far in the year (if I'm incorrect on any of this feel free to correct me), this is how the #'s 8-20 have fared against the top 7 (where losses don't seem to have a big negative impact on the voters, and close losses actually have helped), against their "own group" (which helped the voters position the teams where they are now), and against all other MDIA teams (have they been upset by a team that they should not have lost to?)


______________vs top 7_____vs 8-20____losses to 21+/unranked

8 Vatech................0-1.............1-1.................0
9 Oakland..............0-0.............0-0.................0
10 BC....................0-0.............1-0.................0
11 Oregon.............0-3.............1-0.................1
12 UCSD................0-2.............3-0.................0
13 FSU...................0-2.............2-0.................1
14 GaTech..............0-0.............1-2.................0
15 Lindenwood......0-0.............1-0.................0
16 Utah..................0-3.............1-0.................0
17 Chico................0-1..............1-2.................1
18 Cal Poly............0-2...............0-3................0
19 Miami................0-0...............0-2...............1
20 Chapman..........0-1..............0-2................0

[Rad44]

I would love to see Boston College play a Colorado, Oakland, Arizona type team. BC is big on defense and has one of the most potent offenses in the MDIA (11+ gpg). Playing such teams in the top 12 would be great games and could prove that BC is a deserving team. The only reason they don't play a tougher schedule is due to field conditions, they cannot guarentee space for visiting teams until mid March and they have a limited budget to travel.

No way UNH stays in the poll. They are a weak 7-1 with a loss to Cal and two close wins by weak Texas teams.

Look for Northeastern University to hit the polls soon. They played teams relatively close in Fla. and are destroying PCLL teams. NU and BC look to be competing for the PCLL, although I do not believe that NU has the depth nor overall talent to take over the league. They do however show major signs of improvement from last year and should get recognized for their success.

[Guest]

albert man-
Lindenwood in 2-0 vs. teams 8-20

(Duluth, Miami)

[CATLAX MAN]

Uhh, sorry, Duluth is #22, not in the Top 20. Miami will be out shortly, so that will be 0 wins against Top 20 teams.

[If At First...]

I just think oregon is doing a great job, thats why I like to see them in the top ten. I'm from the Northwest originally and its nice to see the level of lacrosse growing to a point that the local Universities can become big competition.

Its been said many times before, but I can see how difficult it is to place those 8-25 teams. I think when it is that difficult, it does become neccesary to nit-pick over goal differential with opponents in the top 25. Who lost to the top 7, and by how much? Who played an opponent close to their ranking, and how much did they win by? I know a win is a win, but focusing solely on the Ws could make it almost impossible to truly gauge poll position.

It also comes down to scheduling, another topic always hot on the forums. Utah had OOC games with Arizona, Texas A&M and Cal Poly this year, three teams established (or so they thought) in the Top 20. It turned out one of those teams dropped off the map completely, so all the sudden, only the Cal Poly game becomes the measuring stick as to their poll position. They played CU and Arizona close, but does that, combined with the Poly win mean enough to put them in the #12 Blaine-bound spot? We'll have to see. The BYU game might be their last great hope.

I think UCSD is doing a great job this year, and are one of the few teams that you can accurately place in the top 25. They've played teams of their own caliber and won. Thats why my matchups would be so telling...it would match up two established top 15 teams against two unestablished but worthy(we'd find out) top 15 teams.

[TheDudeAbides]

Very interesting table you got there Albert Man. Kind of odd to see that Cal Poly is still in the top 20 after losing to 3 teams from 8-20. I'd also like to see what Oakland can do when they clash with the Wolverines. I have a feeling that, although Pittsburgh probably has a solid team, they aren't at the same level as the two titans mentioned previously. But what do I know, anything can happen. Pitt will have a tough game coming up when they go to the College of Boston. Although the majority may think they are unproven, and you may have some reason to believe that, but I am going on what I witnessed in St. Louis and I liked their estilo.

As for Utah, I think that they are underrated and that they are victims of an extremely strong conference. Playing behind the Rams, BYU AND the Buffs? That's a tough road. The same goes for some WCLL teams as well, but Utah just comes to my mind first. That's the way it is I guess.

As far as picking teams accurately from 8-25? It's darn near impossible, I'm sure.......but it sure as hell is fun to argue about.

[Bentiss]

I don't know how up to date it is, but LAXPOWER'S TSI RANKINGS:

1 BYU 8-2
2 SOMOMA 12-1
3 CSU 12-0
4 MICHIGAN 9-2
5 UCSB 11-2
6 ARIZONA 7-2
7 UCSD 8-2
8 OAKLAND 7-1
9 COLORADO 10-3
10 FSU 10-4
11 OREGON 6-4
12 VIRGINIA TECH 6-2
13 GEORGIA TECH 8-2
14 MIAMI(OH) 5-3
15 CAL POLY 5-5

I think it was "onpoint" who said that this is the closest reality to the rankings as far as LAXPOWER is concerned.

I know that some of the records are not correct in that, for example, Oakland's only loss is to DIV II St. Vincent who is ranked #14 in the TSI. Oakland also had another victory against Central Michigan on 4/2 to make them 8-0 in the MDIA...

Oakand's upcoming schedule will show what they are made of. I don't want to say that there are many doubters, but due to the nature of the league not many people are able to form much of an opinion on them other than what the numbers say...

Remaining schedule:
4/7 Michigan State
4/9 Purdue
4/10 Eastern Michigan
4/13 Michigan
4/17 Miami (OH)
4/23 Western Michigan

We'll see what they're made of...But in the meantime they keep winning and they're doing it pretty impressively in my mind...But what else would you expect from me...PAH PAH PAH!!!

[CATLAX MAN]

All I can say is that any poll or rating system that has BYU & Sonoma State on top of CSU (both teams that CSU has beat) isn't worth the piece of paper that it is written on. Draw whatever conclusions you want with the rest of their ratings, but they are not believable when they consistently come up with the wrong answer.

[Bentiss]

All I can say is that any poll or rating system that has BYU & Sonoma State on top of CSU (both teams that CSU has beat) isn't worth the piece of paper that it is written on.

It's not written on paper...

I agree to an extent. I think it's a good guide as to the AREA a team should be in. There's no exact science, but it's a good indicator to a team's general whereabouts in the poll.