2005 National Seedings

[CATLAX MAN]

You could throw Chico into that group of teams even though they struggled against a strong UCSB squad. Its all a big toss up.

Beg to differ, but from what I saw from Chico, they do not belong in the equation at all. They could not even get the ball across the midfield line against UCSB. UCSD's showing against Sonoma was much more impressive. The 2 teams are not even comparable.

$0.02 deposited.

[bbandlax]

First of all, the First 4 game was not essentially a home game at all for SB. They did not have the benefit of arriving the day before the game, but rather had to travel by vans in horrendous traffic over 2+ hours the day of the game. Yes, they had more fans there, but it was no way anything like a home game for them.

UCSB has to be above Sonoma based on today's win. There really is no other way to look at it. If you're not going to knock down BYU for their loss to Arizona earlier in the year, you certainly can't knock down SB for losing to BYU in a snow & sleet storm almost 6 weeks ago.

Valid point on the SB/CSU game. However CSU certainly had more of a down side playing in California than SB did.

I am knocking BYU for their AZ loss (by not putting them #1). Along with CSU's performance all year, the Arizona loss should count for something. Just as SB's loss in Provo should be taken into consideration.

All that being said if SB ends up 3rd and Sonoma 4th I certainly wouldn't knock the voters.

[univduke21]

I think that you have to have BYU as your #1 seed because the poll and seeding is who is the best team in the country right now, not the entire year. I understand that BYU has multiple losses and that they did lose to AZ, but I can't name a team in the top 7 that would want to play AZ in the first round. So my top 16 would look something like this:
#1. BYU
#16. Texas Tech

#8. Va Tech
#9. Arizona

#5. Michigan
#12. Florida St.

#4. Sonoma
#13. Oakland

#3. UCSB
#14. Minnesota

#6. Colorado
#11. Lindenwood

#7. Oregon
#10. UCSD

#2. Colorado State
#15. Northeastern
This presents an interesting second round game between BYU and Arizona, a game that Arizona won earlier in the season.

[texlaxer7]

16. Texas Tech - (AQ) I don’t want to bash the LSA so we will just let "16th seed" speak for itself. (I think the LSA wont be down for long).

No worries. Doesn't suprise me, the LSA Division A simply could not win an OOC game to save its life this season, with the exception of 2 games that Tech won - might be some other teams that i forgot. Plus, stats from the LSA are incomplete or non-existant for the most part. We definately deserve to be at the back of the line in Blaine. Hope we can turn this around next season.

[Danny Hogan]

"How many wins vs. top 10 does Oregon, FSU, VaTech, Oakland, Utah have? NONE.
AZ is the only 7-16 team with a top 10 win and they have 2."

FSU and VT each beat each other. So right now VT has a top 10 win and after the poll FSU will have one.

[ACE]

This presents an interesting second round game between BYU and Arizona, a game that Arizona won earlier in the season.

It would, but it won't happen. BYU might get the nod at #1 (I still think it is CSU), but Arizona will not be ranked #9. There is no way, you really think they will move up a spot after not even making the WCLL semis??

[Brent Burns]

A loss to BYU by one goal is only a blip for CSU, and I still think they will remain in the top spot after an outstanding regular season.

[laxfan25]

I am assuming that Oakland came from behind against the Michigan bench.

Michigan never had a chance to put the bench in the game. Oakland put a pretty good scare into them with their comeback effort. When they got it to 8 - 6 you could feel the tension rising. If they had been able to cut it to one, collars would have really started to tighten!
Oakland had a failed clear, Michigan's #9 picked up the loose ball, drove down and scored, restoring a 3-goal cushion (9 - 6) that they were able to hang on to for the win.

[ACE]

How many new teams will be at the tournament this season?

Texas Tech, Northeastern, Minnesota, Lindenwood, UCSD?

[Sonny]

How many new teams will be at the tournament this season?

Texas Tech, Northeastern, Minnesota, Lindenwood, UCSD?

Texas Tech, Northeastern, Minnesota, & Lindenwood are new Div. A Conference Champions making it to Nationals for the first time.

Possible new teams for at-large selections include (in no particular order) UCSD & Utah. The other bubble teams (Arizona, Oakland, Chico State, Florida State, Champan, Georgia Tech, Boston College, New Hampshire, Minnesota-Duluth, Cal Poly) had qualified in previous seasons.

[AlumniLax]

eventhough csu lost, i don't see how we can drop them from the #1 spot. yes they lost, but they have beaten ssu, ucsb and byu already. csu is still, imho, by far the best team in the country....

[Bluevelvet]

I just don't see how you can place the #2 team in the RMLC above the #1 team. It makes the entire championship of the RMLC meaningless. BYU beat CSU on Saturday. There should be no question as to which team is better. They played 2 days ago and BYU proved they are #1.
CSU had alot of nice wins this year. The wins vs. top 5 teams were all close. They could have easiliy lost all of those games (BYU +2, UCSB +2, SSU+1 OT, etc). CSU wasn't vastly superior in those games. BYU won fair and square. They should be #1.
The same goes for UCSB over Sonoma. They were both 15 or 16 and 2. But UCSB beat them yesterday. Yesterday! They met head to head and UCSB prevailed. What better indicator exists than yesterday's game? Anyone who thinks that today's UCSB team is the same banged up team that lost to CSU and BYU in March is sadly mistaken.
They play the conference championships to determine who has the best team, now, not 1 or 2 months ago.
I can see checking overall records and comparative scores for teams that never played each other or did not make it to the finals of their conference, but when there are very recent head to head contests, the results can not be ignored. Why hold conference championships if the results are going to be ignored? Ask Minnesota & Northeastern if they want to be replaced in MN by the team they just beat yesterday.

[ACE]

So why do we play the entire regular season? Why don't we just play conference tournaments and the winners go to Blaine? BYU was better on one day, and I think anybody in the top 5 can beat anybody else on any given day. CSU had a better overall season and still deserve to be #1.

[Kyle Berggren]

"What have you done for me lately?"

As much as the polls should change as the season unfolds.... I see the poll as needing to reflect the most accurate information since the last poll. Sadly for CSU, they were beat on their final day of play before Nationals. However, a close loss like that, and all this discussion is only going to fuel their fire. Congrats to BYU on a tough win.