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Polls 2021-2022

L

Lindsay

Registered User
Thoughts anyone?
I think UMD and NU should be flip flopped at a minimum. Fun that so many are receiving votes.

USCHO women's poll 10/25/21

1 Wisconsin (15) 150 pts
2 Ohio State 135 pts
3 Minnesota 110 pts
4 Boston College 96 pts
5 Colgate 87 pts
6 Northeastern 67 pts
7 Minnesota Duluth 58 pts
8 Quinnipiac 57 pts
9 Cornell 25 pts
10 Harvard 12 pts

Others receiving votes: Providence 8, Minnesota State 6, Rensselaer 4, Princeton 3, Clarkson 2, Yale 2, Boston University 1, Connecticut 1, Mercyhurst 1
 
UMD has the loss Minnesota State which is hurting them right now. Otherwise I think they are the 3rd or 4th best team in the country.
 
I don't see how Harvard gets in the top 10 with 2 wins over Saint Anselm and Dartmouth. The same could be said for Cornell (9) with a weekend split against Mercyhurst (1 vote). NE should have dropped given their two losses to the only two decent teams they've played and recent slim wins against Maine and HC. It would certainly appear that certain teams have one hiccup and drop out of consideration, while others remain in the Top 10 regardless of outcome.
 
Polls certainly have a "historical strength" bias in them for all sports. Agree that not sure how any of the Ivys can be represented right now given there is no real results and beating up on NEWHA schools should not count (looking at you Yale and Harvard - could you at least try to schedule competitive out-of-conference games given how few you play??). When was the last time RPI got any votes in a poll?
 
Cornholio said:
To be fair to Harvard, they have only the 1 NEWHA on the schedule (like most programs) but Yale - come'on man!
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With only 20 conference games, those NEWHA teams need games against someone. It is kind of like the WCHA teams loading up on Lindenwood; from a competitive standpoint, it may not make sense, but from a logistics/geographical point of view, it does.
 
I agree that each of the D1 programs should schedule a game vrs the NEWHA, but the conference needs to demonstrate they can beat the upper D3 programs (looking at the Plattsburgh game) before being taken seriously as a D1. For a school like Yale to schedule at least 4 games it looks against the NEWHA is a little crazy. Their schedule is basically ECAC and NEWHA schools.
 
Cornholio said:
For a school like Yale to schedule at least 4 games it looks against the NEWHA is a little crazy.
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IMO, what is different between Harvard and Yale is that Harvard could wind up in the running for an at-large NCAA berth; I don't see Yale being at that level this year.

I'm inclined to give the coaches a pass this year on their scheduling, because it isn't easy to put together a schedule in any season because team's NC dates have to line up. Add in the pandemic restrictions, and a team has to think long and hard about scheduling flights for games that may be canceled at the last second, so I can't blame them for looking closer to home. For example, UW has a rather soft NC schedule for a defending champ, but maybe they didn't have a lot of opponents who wanted to sign up for two losses.
 
You may be more forgiving that I, but the rest of the ivy and other ECAC schools had the same challenges. To highlight - Yale's out-of-conference consists of BU and 4 NEWHA schools. Depending on how the Nutmeg goes, it could be another match up vrs Sacred Heart (or UCONN). At best they play ECAC+2 HE schools (BU and UCONN) and 4 NEWHA. By comparison, here is how many NEWHA programs "peer" schools and other 'weaker' programs scheduled:

Brown - 1
Dartmouth - 3
Harvard - 1
Princeton - 1
RPI - 1
Union - 2
RIT - 4
Lindenwood - 0

If you want to be like Harvard+Princeton, you need to schedule and compete like Harvard+Princeton. Heck, even Brown has not gone this weak. Whoever made the Yale schedule did so with purpose, and it does not reflect well on a program that likes to think of itself in the Harvard+Princeton league and not Brown+Dartmouth (everyone quit yelling - everyone knows the ivy pecking order). Keep in mind Yale made this schedule when they play 2x each of the ECAC "murderer's row" of Brown/Dartmouth/Union/RPI (although RPI looks stronger this year this was not the expectation when the schedule was made). Heck, they play the same number of NEWHA schools as RIT, and RIT plays a lot more games. It really is quite embarrassing for the school and ECAC quite frankly. The Yale players deserved better.
 
You're probably right. I'd forgotten that Yale finished 5th in their previous ECAC season or who its coach even was.
 
Harvard's & Cornell's rankings are based on previous years' performances and they are getting the benefit of the doubt right now. Colgate is ranked a bit high IMO; the two losses to MN show they cannot win against a Top-5 team and are in the 7-10 range. Like most schools, Colgate's early games are tune-ups. Scoring 22 goals vs. RIT and 13 vs. Syracuse is meaningless when you lose twice to #4 Minnesota. I thought it was great that MN made the trek to Hamilton. It was great watching them play; such a good team. Qpac has something to prove and like last year, it's record isn't the best indicator of how well it will do against top teams.
The joke is more with the PWR, where Yale is #4 with a 2-0 record and schools like BC are #7 at 6-0 and Colgate is #9 at 8-2. It seems as if the late IVY start benefits them more.
 
TchrBill said:
Harvard's & Cornell's rankings are based on previous years' performances and they are getting the benefit of the doubt right now. Colgate is ranked a bit high IMO; the two losses to MN show they cannot win against a Top-5 team and are in the 7-10 range. Like most schools, Colgate's early games are tune-ups. Scoring 22 goals vs. RIT and 13 vs. Syracuse is meaningless when you lose twice to #4 Minnesota. I thought it was great that MN made the trek to Hamilton. It was great watching them play; such a good team. Qpac has something to prove and like last year, it's record isn't the best indicator of how well it will do against top teams.
The joke is more with the PWR, where Yale is #4 with a 2-0 record and schools like BC are #7 at 6-0 and Colgate is #9 at 8-2. It seems as if the late IVY start benefits them more.
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The pairwise is meaningless right now and shouldn't even be looked at until December
 
Colgate is ranked a bit high IMO; the two losses to MN show they cannot win against a Top-5 team and are in the 7-10 range. Like most schools, Colgate's early games are tune-ups. Scoring 22 goals vs. RIT and 13 vs. Syracuse is meaningless when you lose twice to #4 Minnesota. I thought it was great that MN made the trek to Hamilton. It was great watching them play.[/QUOTE]

I don’t think losing 5-3 and 3-2 proves Colgate cannot win against top 5 teams especially when you are playing without arguably your number 1 defenseman. Those games could have gone either way. Colgate will see MN and BC in Nashville so that will be a good barometer.
 
Rightnut said:
I don't think losing 5-3 and 3-2 proves Colgate cannot win against top 5 teams especially when you are playing without arguably your number 1 defenseman. Those games could have gone either way. Colgate will see MN and BC in Nashville so that will be a good barometer.
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What would prove Colgate would have issues against better competition if not head to head competition? And keep in mind that Minnesota is really not all that good in the west. They have already been swept by OSU, will likely not win the other 2 games at OSU and will very likely get swept in 4 games against WisconSIN. They have split with UMD and they will probably wind up splitting their 2 other games.

Colgate, if as good as advertised, should have at least split with Minnesota. But maybe, as you mention, they will be better in Nashville.
 
FiveHoleFrenzy said:
What would prove Colgate would have issues against better competition if not head to head competition? And keep in mind that Minnesota is really not all that good in the west. They have already been swept by OSU, will likely not win the other 2 games at OSU and will very likely get swept in 4 games against WisconSIN. They have split with UMD and they will probably wind up splitting their 2 other games.

Colgate, if as good as advertised, should have at least split with Minnesota. But maybe, as you mention, they will be better in Nashville.
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I am not saying that Colgate is not going to have "issues" with better competition. Those teams are excellent so there will definitely be challenges. I was commenting on the statement that they "cannot win". I don't think that is a true statement. Will they win every game or even go better than 500 - maybe not. But they can win games. That was my point. Also, as pointed out, MN had played really good teams early but Colgate had not. I think that showed. Time will tell.
 
Rightnut said:
I am not saying that Colgate is not going to have "issues" with better competition. Those teams are excellent so there will definitely be challenges. I was commenting on the statement that they "cannot win". I don't think that is a true statement.
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This is hockey; it is always possible for a team as good as Colgate to win. As strong as UW is, they've been in 3-on-3 OT in back-to-back weekends, and it doesn't take a lot of imagination to see how quickly 1/3 of a loss becomes 2/3 of a loss, or whatever the goofy ratio is.

If Colgate is ranked too high, then who is more deserving than the Raiders? BC may or may not be deserving of being ranked as high as it is. Maybe the Eagles are being shortchanged and should be higher. Maybe BC is better than OSU ... but I tend to doubt it. We get more info this weekend. BC plays Northeastern, and we find out if Northeastern is recovering from a hangover after being so close to the title or if the Eagles have somehow passed the Huskies. The Gophers go to Bemidji with a chance to prove UM is as bad as their fans say they are. Princeton & Yale is an interesting game, and surprisingly, so is SLU & RPI.

Should be fun!
 
Always the same arguments on the West vs the East, but Clarkson should have put an end to that nonsense. OSU has made a dream team and will be tough to beat. I don't think BC is that good, but Levy is playing lights out. She is having a Selander type year And they do have a better supporting cast than Selander, so BC may be a tough out if they can keep it low scoring. I'm really not sure about Northeastern since they have lost to BU and Providence who in turn lost to RPI. Minnesota was the better team this weekend. I see a lot of parity with OSU at the top right now with Wisconsin at #2, other than those two I see a lot of parity.
 
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