5/2/07 Division B Top 25 Poll is out

[Sonny]

LINK:
http://www.collegelax.us/news.php?action=fullnews&id=1282

[Andy Sharp]

LaxPower will never be perfect with the limited number of OOC games, but I found the comparison interesting, what do you think? The teams are sorted by the poll result with the +/- up front indicating how far the poll was from LaxPower's ranking.

+2 St. John's - MN
-1 Westminster
+1 St. Thomas
-2 Montana
+1 Dayton
+5 Harding
+2 Emory
-3 Fort Lewis
+3 Western Washington
-2 Northern Colorado
+6 Calvin
+2 Montana State
+11 Southwestern
-4 Savannah College AD
+1 North Carolina - Charlotte
+3 Carnegie Mellon
+1 Western Oregon
+41 Salem State
+4 Southern Oregon
+12 Creighton
0 Elon
+11 California - Irvine
+8 Pacific Lutheran
+2 Colorado School of Mines
+5 Augustana
#### Top 25 Break Line ####
-1 Eckerd
-7 Northern Michigan
-15 Grand Valley State
+24 Pepperdine
0 Dordt College
+4 Biola
-10 Whitman
-18 Ferris State
-7 Northern Arizona
+6 Furman
+39 Framingham State
+6 St. Louis
-10 Wisconsin - Eau Claire
+36 New Haven

If you discounted the difference by 50%, here is what the top 25 would look like:
01 Westminster
02 St. John's - MN
03 Montana
04 St. Thomas
05 Dayton
06 Fort Lewis
07 Emory
08 Harding
09 Northern Colorado
10 Western Washington
11 Savannah College AD
12 Montana State
13 Calvin
14 North Carolina - Charlotte
15 Carnegie Mellon
16 Western Oregon
17 Southwestern
18 Grand Valley State
19 Southern Oregon
20 Elon
21 Northern Michigan
22 Ferris State
23 Colorado School of Mines
24 Eckerd
25 Creighton

Personally, that's a poll I would feel more comfortable about. This is not an attack on any one team, just a bit of working the numbers that I found interesting.

Teams that moved out of Top 25: Pacific Lutheran, UC-Irvine, Augustana, Salem State.
Teams that moved into of Top 25: Grand Valley, Northern Michigan, Ferris State, Eckerd.

Ooo, there it is, the part I found interesting, the CCLA pack is under-rated.

[Gvlax]

i agree what andy says about the CCLA B division. But i guess the only way we can show how strong our division is, is at nationals. There will be no way for us (CCLA B Division) to convince everyone on here esp. when everyone already has a biased oppinion on other conferences.

[scooter]

i still don't know how UST has hung on to the 3 spot....IMO opinion, they should be 5, behind Dayton and Montana

[Pinball]

Laxpower puts a thorn in SJU and UST's side because of the conference being a little weaker then most.

[bjlaxman16]

i still don't know how UST has hung on to the 3 spot....IMO opinion, they should be 5, behind Dayton and Montana

It's hard to rank some of these teams because there's no way to compare them. But looking at the last poll, it goes:

SJU
Westminster
UST
Dayton
Montana

SJU and Westminster haven't lost, they should stay there.

UST has only lost to SJU in the UMLL championship, 8-6. Playing the #1, they were supposed to lose, and they did so by a smaller margin than earlier in the season (7-4).

Dayton has done nothing to move them up.

Montana hasn't lost either, and won the PNCLL over Western Washington (a top 10 team) 8-6. I don't believe this win is enough to move them up 2 spots, especially based on UST and Dayton's games since the last poll.

No knock on Montana, I think they're a very good team. But if they don't get the #3 or #4 spot after beating UNC (by 5) and Montana State (by 7) in the same day, they shouldn't get it after a 2 goal win to a team below them, especially over 2 teams that have been in the top 4 all season and only lost to #1.

[norway]

I still do not understand Dayton. Sure they should be in the top 10, but should they be at #4. A team has no losses and has only played one team in the top 25. I think Emory should be getting more props than Dayton. We won't know anything about that team until this weekend, and yet for some reason people keep putting them in the top 5. That makes no sense. They didn't even make nationals last year so you can't be going off of reputation. That pick just doesnt make any sense.

[bjlaxman16]

Not trying to disagree with you scooter (I didn't immediately notice the IMO part of your post), just giving my guess for why UST is still 3. I do agree that Montana has more quality wins, but again, it's hard to rank teams that can't be compared.

[Andy Sharp]

The A division has reached a point where you can talk about spots and a loss/win moving them up or down a couple, but I don't think the B division is to that point yet. We still have teams that have not yet gained the recognition they deserve.

I highly doubt there is a voter who has seen teams from more than 4 conferences during spring ball, so there is still a huge unknown factor in the polls, re. Eckerd at last year's tourney.

It is much improved, people are informing themselves better and more talk is going on, but there will inevitably be a shocker or two come nationals.

Norway, look back to the beginning of the season, remember when people argued Westminster was not worthy of even being in the Top 25. I think many of us look beyond the wins and take into account the fact that Dayton has a former DIII coach, 30 guys, and load of talent (12 all-CCLA players). Feel free to overlook them, but be sure to give them credit if they prove you wrong.

[asulax]

i dont see why SCAD is a head of UNC-C, when UNC-C beat SCAD at SCAD and their only loss to a B teams is in the SELC championship game to Emory. What has SCAD done this season?

[barracudas3]

One thing that always helps measure how good certain conferences are is playing top teams from other conferences. Calvin and UST have played each other the past 2 seasons and it has been a good game each time. It is tough to compare teams that have not played each other and that is where teams have to go out and schedule top competition so that they better themselves when the tournament comes knockin..polls don't matter until the final one comes out after Dallas, then we will see who the top teams are

[Andy Sharp]

One thing that always helps measure how good certain conferences are is playing top teams from other conferences. Calvin and UST have played each other the past 2 seasons and it has been a good game each time.

It would be interesting to play UST later in the season. Maybe we could interest you in next year's Holy War. Our offense has changed quite a bit since those first 2 losses, up and down. We have our 1st team all-CCLA attackman (who you've never played) back from hockey, but we lost our #2 attackman to a broken thumb vs GVSU and #3 attackman to a shoulder injury vs Ferris. Other guys have moved in to keep us undefeated since, 13 straight, but this weekend will be very competitive, high quality teams, all of which I am sure would be happy to keep us from going 5 straight. I won't consider any of this weekend's games upsets, no matter the winner.

[Zeuslax]

Dayton is legit. They are the best team we've played this year hands down. Not a flashy team, but a team that executes and hustles. They have the talent to back up their ranking.

To add to Andy's fun facts.......currently 14 of the top 25 teams are cold weather teams. 1 - 5 all are.

[Kyle Berggren]

The A division has reached a point where you can talk about spots and a loss/win moving them up or down a couple, but I don't think the B division is to that point yet. We still have teams that have not yet gained the recognition they deserve.

I agree with you 100%. I hope teams take that to heart come Dallas. Every OOC game is used to rank not only you, but your conference. If you are the number 3 team in your conference, & you can convincingly beat another conferences number 1, your entire conference will get the benefit of the doubt.

Until we play a more National schedule, the consolation games in Dallas are also going to play a role in how you're conference is viewed the following season. You only get so many chances to prove how good you & your conference are, inconsistency is a killer. Every game in Dallas should matter to the B teams that make it.

[Andy Sharp]

the consolation games in Dallas are also going to play a role in how you're conference is viewed the following season.

I am not sure I would read too much into consolation games, both UVSC and Calvin "bombed", yet have recovered this season. The A division reps make the argument all the time that games just don't mean as much once you're out of the hunt. They are still fun and I am glad we give every team more than one game after flying across the country, but let's not read too much into them. Try losing in OT two years in a row and see how easy it is to motivate them to play their best at 9am, it's just not going to be representative. I would hope that voters only take the top bracket at nationals into account, primarily the top 8 teams. Below that, it's all about how you did against those top 8 during games that matter.