What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

M&W Hockey Polls

J

Jack McDonald

New member
Still very, very sad that college hockey/USCHO still is allowed to NOT have and EQUAL number of men's and women's teams in their weekly polls while all other NCAA sports have EQUAL numbers of M&W listed in their polls. This is WRONG for equity and WRONG for the marketing of two great men's and women's sports, especially in the regions that sponsor ice hockey! Sorry to be a pain in he A-- on this but this is WRONG, very, very WRONG. USCHO would generate many, many more "views". Also College D-I M&W Ice Hockey is the "only" NCAA sports that does NOT post a National poll for 25 teams!
 
I really don’t see this as a big deal. The Women’s poll shows the top 15 which is roughly 1/3 off the 44 D1 teams (slightly more). The Men’s poll is the top 20 which is also roughly 1/3 of the 64 D1 Men’s teams (slightly less actually). So … seems pretty equal to me. The sports that show top 25 have far more D1 teams.
 
If you look at the quality of the teams I think the polls are the right size. On the men's side any one of the top 12 teams could win the Natty, while a woman's side honestly only the top three probably can, so what's the point of ranking a bunch of nothing burgers?
 
Timothy A said:
If you look at the quality of the teams I think the polls are the right size.
Click to expand...

Agreed...It is not "WRONG" on how the polls are done for what is frankly a niche sport.


Timothy A said:
On the men's side any one of the top 12 teams could win the Natty, while a woman's side honestly only the top three probably can, so what's the point of ranking a bunch of nothing burgers?
Click to expand...

No better "nothing burger" example than to have the supposed 6th ranked aint's come to play the top ranked yuckeyes this past weekend and lose two games by a combined score of 16-1, getting outshot 82-24.
 
BackyardIce said:
I really don’t see this as a big deal. The Women’s poll shows the top 15 which is roughly 1/3 off the 44 D1 teams (slightly more). The Men’s poll is the top 20 which is also roughly 1/3 of the 64 D1 Men’s teams (slightly less actually). So … seems pretty equal to me. The sports that show top 25 have far more D1 teams.
Click to expand...

Sorry you feel this way. This hurts the promotion of M&W Hockey, especially the new programs that are investing thousands, if not millions into M&W Ice Hockey. Not a very good look for USCHO to NOT be Equitable like all other NCAA Sports (Field Hockey, Lacrosse, and more..)
 
Looking at the preseason polls since 2006-07, which is as far back as I found, teams ranked 1-3 in those preseason polls have won 11 national championships, while teams ranked 4-6 have won 5 national championships.
Here is this info organized by the team that won, followed by their preseason rank in the USCHO poll, since the '07 tournament (tourney year in parentheses):
Wisconsin: 1 ('07), 2 ('09), 5 ('11), 2 ('19), 1 ('21), 3 ('23)
Minnesota: 4 ('12), 1 ('13), 1 ('15), 1 ('16)
Clarkson: 3 ('14), 5 ('17), 1 ('18)
UMD: 5 ('08), 6 ('10)
OSU: 3 ('22)
So, the teams outside of the top 3 at any given time are not necessarily nothing burgers. Maybe the group of the top 3 teams has gotten to be a progressively stronger group, though. The WCHA certainly has a great out-of-conference record this season and last season. They have the 3-headed monster - 4-headed if you count UMD?

I feel as though the rankings as a whole aren't simply about who is going to win the final game of the season, though.
 
FiveHoleFrenzy said:
No better "nothing burger" example than to have the supposed 6th ranked aint's come to play the top ranked yuckeyes this past weekend and lose two games by a combined score of 16-1, getting outshot 82-24.
Click to expand...

I like nothing burgers, BC is now ranked and UW beat them with the combined score of 17-5.
 
Timothy A said:
I like nothing burgers, BC is now ranked and UW beat them with the combined score of 17-5.
Click to expand...

The polls have been a joke for a long time. I think it was a year or two back, that either BC or BU got swept by a lower ranked opponent and still received a vote for #1. I think the only ones that worry about the rankings are the parents. The kids don't care, at least mine never did, all she cared about was where they were at in the pairwise, to make the tourney.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top