A quick question about the national polls. It's safe to say that just about every week an unranked team upsets a top 10 team. What I don't get, and I know everyone says the polls are biased and/or don't matter until the season is over, is how that unranked team can leapfrog everybody to a ranking somewhere between 10-13. I guess that's why people argue that after the top 10 the rankings don't really matter. For example, Gonzaga beats UCSB 1-0, a great win against a struggling team, and they go from unranked to 13. Ohio State goes from unranked to 14. Yet, Virginia Tech beats ranked Clemson and national powerhouse St. Johns and only goes to 18, i don't understand. Keep an eye out for it because this happens every week...
One of the biggest problems in the polls that exist for the college game is that most of the games aren't even seen by the people voting. There's no telling what a team may have actually played like, and soccer is one of those weird sports where a team can dominate another, literally outplaying them for 89 minutes, and lose on a last minute shot that happens to be the only shot the winning team even had. Most people, including other coaches, have no clue what 80% of the other teams playing in there division are even like, and most of them don't have the time(coaches), or the budget(journalists), to find out. Sports like football and basketball have the luxury of having most of the bigger games, or at least ranked teams, being on TV for all to see either live or recorded. There's a bias, but, in many ways, it's justified. Until a team that doesn't necessarily have a tradition of winning, consistently performs at a higher level, there is almost no other choice for those voting to react the way they do. I'm one of those that sees the college game coming to some level of parity, for a variety of reasons. I also believe that as that parity increases, when a team like UCLA loses 2 games in a weekend, no matter who they lose to, they won't be ranked in the top 15 by any poll.
also the problem is its too early in the season to have rankings same thing with football look at michigan in football...many teams in the top rankings won't be there come the end of the season and many teams that started unranked will be ranked highly in the end. This is why we play the games and not just name the pre season number 1 the champion before a game is played.
The past 4? years the Clemson-VT matches have been good matches. Last year, I believe Tech upset Clemson something along the lines of 5-2. Soccer like most team sports is about match-ups and Tech has something over Clemson. Just last week, Tech lost to VCU 4-0. This weekend VCU lost to Clemson and tied St. Johns. College soccer rankings are some of the most volatile measures I've ever seen. I always think they should have a disclaimer that says they are only for entertainment purposes only. Especially early in the season when teams are playing more out of conference matches, it can be hard to gauge a team since they are finding the right lineups and adjusting to new players. I think I've seen more formations and lineups in the past couple weeks from Tech than I've seen since Coach Weiss came to Blacksburg.
Again I don't understand the rationale behind some of these rankings. BC beats Maryland in Boston, still a good win, but to go from unranked to #13 in the Soccer America poll? In the same poll, San Francisco goes from unranked to #12? UCLA is 2-2-1 and went from #10 up to #5!?!?
These polls all try and become the self fulfilling prophecy. It's a "I told you so mentality". If BC loses to Our Lady of the Sacred Reststop, then they can all go back to saying that it was just a blip on the screen, Maryland just had a bad game, they should have never lost that game and we were right all along. In the end, the polls mean little compared to the RPI ratings when it comes to NCAA tournament, and that's where every team wants to be anyway. Coaches are far more concerned with the regional rankings from the coach's poll than any other poll out there, that has a big bearing on selection day when they sit behind closed doors and make their decisions.
Ok I know I know, the polls are biased and don't mean anything for a couple months but someone please explain to me how Michigan State went from unranked to 6th in the freakin' country!! Granted they did beat Notre Dame and Michigan but doesn't that jump seem a little generous? It's interesting how some conferences get preferential treatment in the polls. Furman is 12-1, hasn't really played anybody, but has been ranked from 20-25 for several weeks. Ivy League teams, however, are getting too much recognition. Yes Brown beat BC and Santa Clara but to say that they are the 5th best team in the country is bogus. Anyway, sorry for that, just needed to vent...
We've established that the polls don't really mean anything and all that jazz but I don't understand this. In this poll, which has first place votes in parentheses, Wake has 7 votes, Uconn has 5, and SMU has 4 but Uconn is ranked 1st. I'm not necessarily advocating that Wake should be ranked #1 but I don't get the logic behind it. Any ideas?? http://soccertimes.com/ncaa/top25/men.htm
What don't you understand? Here is the voting method for the SoccerTimes Poll. On each ballot the voting coach awards, 25 points for a first place vote, 24 for second place, 23 for third, etc., to 1 point for 25th place. Here is the panel of coaches who vote in the Poll, Voting panel: Louis Bennett, Marquette; Mark Berson, South Carolina; Sasho Cirovski, Maryland; Ian Collins, Kentucky; Dan Donigan, Saint Louis; Jeremy Fishbein, New Mexico; Mike Freitag, Indiana; Mike Getman, Alabama at Birmingham; Kevin Grimes, California; Schellas Hyndman, Southern Methodist; Mike Jacobs, Evansville; Paul Krumpe, Loyola Marymount; Ken Lolla, Louisville; Ray Reid, Connecticut; John Rennie, Duke; Bob Warming, Creighton.
I can read I'm just saying it's kind of counterintuitive/misleading to look up and see that the team with the most first place votes is not in first place that's all
I'm happy to hear that you can read. Hopefully you will also learn how to comprehend. You are the one who asked for help. You said you didn't understand the logic behind the poll. I tried to assist you. Hopefully you now understand that 1st Place votes count along with 2nd place votes, 3rd place votes, 4th place votes etc...
Yes, my idea is that you think more, post less. This isn't that difficult a math problem to figure out. If it still stumps you or seems "counterintuitive," that would appear to be a you problem.