9/25 - New Polls, New Questions

New regional and national polls out. Things seem to have straightened themselves out a bit, as far as making regional and national polls more congruent. But you still have to wonder...

1. Syracuse beats Providence at BC, and now supplants them at #2 in the Northeast, and debuts in the National Poll for the first time ever, at 26th. Do we credit the pollsters for actually taking the time to look at the results from last week and voting accordingly? Or do we discredit them for not looking carefully enough to notice that Providence sat Max Smith and probably would have won the meet... to say nothing of the fact that they were voting Syracuse into a spot that correlates to an automatic bid to Nationals.

2. Do we applaud the pollsters for seeing American place 4th at Navy and dropping them from 3rd to 8th in the Mid-Atlantic? Or do we shake our heads over the fact that LaSalle was one of the teams that pushed them to 4th in that meet, yet were voted behind them at 9th in the Regional Poll? (Admittedly, American did look a bit improved at Iona.)

3. And finally, the press-release headline says it all: "Wisconsin solidifies hold on top spot." Stop and think about that a minute. Reflect on the performances turned in by the Buffs and Ducks over the past two weeks, and compare them to those of the Badgers who apparently "solidified their hold." Frankly, Wisconsin did no such thing. The voters did.

So looking ahead to late November... 3 teams in the Northeast in the National Poll = 3 NE teams to Terre Haute? Not likely. Still, we'll operate under the premise that the 30 teams in the poll are our 30 teams at Nationals:

The Race for 31st
Sandwich teams: LIBERTY (4th, NR) courtesy Virginia (5th but 28th). WEBER STATE (3rd, NR) thanks to both Northern Arizona (4th, 19th) and BYU (5th, 20th). (Wacky, I know, right?)

Others Receiving Votes: Weber State, Florida, EMU, Nova, Wazzu, Butler, Texas A&M, Kansas, Liberty, THE Ohio State University, American, Illinois

First out in Regional Polls (ORVs removed): Lamar

After a less-than-awesome showing at Sundodger, Wazzu slipped a bit, and we'll take that opportunity to unofficially slide Weber State into 31st position. I feel like we should automatically disqualify a 3rd team from the NE Region, and award a bonus spot, but them's the breaks, Liberty.