2/4/02 Polls

...are really late this week. I'm about to give up and go home

We got a 1st place vote?!

USA Today:
1. New Hampshire, 250 (7)
2. St. Cloud, 247 (4)
T-3. Michigan State, 244 (3)
Denver, 244 (3)
5. Minnesota, 205 (1)
6. Colorado College, 197
7. Maine, 171
8. Cornell, 144 (1)
9. Boston University, 138
10. Northern Michigan, 116
11. Michigan, 87
12. Nebraska-Omaha, 83
13. Massachusetts-Lowell, 81
14. Alaska-Fairbanks, 37
15. Northeastern, 18

Others receiving votes: Ohio State 9, Wisconsin 3, Dartmouth 2, Western Michigan 2, Harvard 1, Mercyhurst 1.

holy $h!t! we got a 1st place vote!! more importantly, we are back to about the rank that i was hoping that we would be! sadly, even if we won every game from here on in i don't think that we can go much higher (well - maybe as high as 6) due to the stigma associated with the ECAC. oh well. its nice to get noticed and all but these polls count for squat anyway(except maybe recruiting). all the same, way to go red!

Ugh. I'm not a big fan of the "my fellow voters aren't giving team X its due, so I'll take it upon myself to correct the situation by giving team X an inflated rank", even when Cornell is the beneficiary. Now, rather than folks talking about how Cornell is proving itself formidable with its 6 game win streak against some stiff competition, everyone is going to be bellyaching about this first place vote.

On the other hand, I have not seen any of the 7 teams ranked ahead of us play, so maybe we are indeed better than all of them.

LOL. Well, that's one for the books, I'll say that.

Who knows? Come April, that voter may look like the smartest fan on earth.

I think that whoever voted Cornell #1 was just looking at the standings, and figured that any first place team with a winning streak deserves a parenthetical after their vote total. I (and probably all of you) don't think our out of conference performance warrants it. I am always suspicious of the polls because it always seems pretty clear that the voters have a very regional focus (not bias, per se, just focus). They only see the local games, so how else could they vote?

But I've got to admit - getting a #1 is pretty cool.

I remember a few years back, a Cornell assistant with a vote in the D-IAA football poll gave a then-undefeated Cornell his vote for #1. Olbermann even mentioned the vote on SportsCenter before the details on who voted us #1 were known. Then Cornell lost a few, and (IIRC) didn't win the Ivies.

big red apple wrote:

I remember a few years back, a Cornell assistant with a vote in the D-IAA football poll gave a then-undefeated Cornell his vote for #1. Olbermann even mentioned the vote on SportsCenter before the details on who voted us #1 were known. Then Cornell lost a few, and (IIRC) didn't win the Ivies.

Well, we never have, so it's safe to assume we didn't that year either.

still no USCHO poll??

never mind. here they are


February 4, 2002

Team (First Place Votes) Record Pts Last Week
1 Denver (11) 23- 5-0 530 1
2 St. Cloud (12) 22- 5-2 525 5
3 New Hampshire (9) 19- 5-3 515 2
4 Michigan State (3) 19- 5-5 485 4
5 Minnesota (3) 19- 6-4 451 3
6 Colorado College (1) 18- 8-2 416 8
7 Maine (1) 16- 7-5 405 6
8 Cornell 15- 5-1 284 11
9 Boston University 16- 7-2 266 10
10 Northern Michigan 18- 8-2 244 7
11 Michigan 16- 8-5 182 12
12 UMass-Lowell 17- 8-1 178 9
13 Nebraska-Omaha 18- 9-3 143 13
14 Alaska-Fairbanks 16-10-2 75 15
15 Ohio State 14-10-4 31 -

Others receiving votes: Northeastern 28, Dartmouth 19,
Clarkson 6, Mercyhurst 5, Air Force 3, Harvard 2,
North Dakota 2, Western Michigan 2, Providence 1,
Union 1, Wisconsin 1

(hope that i didn't miss them already posted)


sorry for the formatting

Apple, we were 6-0 when that first place vote was cast (I thought by Hofher himself), and then went on to lose four straight (all Ivy games, I think) after that.

Is the USA Today poll voted by coaches? Maybe Mazzoleni picked us!

The top seven teams will be very difficult to displace.

Seven teams received first place votes (but not the good guys).

Josh wrote:

Well, we never have, so it's safe to assume we didn't that year either.

Actually, we won (shared) the Ivy title in 1971, 1988 and 1990. I was one of the first half dozen or so on the field after the gun sounded on the 1990 game against Penn. And was overtaken by the crowd by roughly the 10 yard line (or was it the 3? There is a reason why I watched instead of played). If you only meant that we have never gone undefeated in league play, you are correct.

For the history of Ivy league champs:

[www.ivyleaguesports.com]

I'm amused by Air Force (6th & last (1-9) in the "C(one-'C'-short-of-a-real-league)HA" getting more votes than Hahvahd in the USCHO poll. Ouch.

(I don't get it -- Air Force doesn't have any big wins... just some friends amongst the voters, I guess...)

(And, speaking strictly of the ECAC, it's always an eye-opener for us "old-timers" to see Dartmouth ahead of Clarkson...)

(Also, is it just me, or is it "impossible" to *retroactively* insert these goofy-faces into the middle of already-typed text (between paragraphs, etc.)?? When I try to do so, the face gets put at the very end of all my writing. No biggie -- I'll live...)

Well, actually what I meant is that we've never won the title outright.

You can just cut/paste the smiley's ascii code to wherever you want it to go.

I love the fact that the first place votes are so scattered in this week's poll. It's an indication that the field is wide open this year, with no clear favorite. Several perrenial favorites are down (e.g. last year's finalists) and everyone has stumbled at times. Makes it all more fun, IMO.

And funny enough, Keith, that very same parity across college hockey this year is Cornell's only hope to move up beyond #8 (whether it be in a poll, the RPI ranking, or PWR).
You never know... Maine loses one game, then Colorado College trips over Wisconsin, then Minnesota hiccups against N. Dakota and all of the sudden... (keep your fingers crossed for Big Red wins)... Cornell moves up.
Yes, even in the more important RPI and PWR.
Those who argue it will be tough are right. But it's been a while since Cornell had a team which was up to the challenge. This year they do.

My thoughts exactly Mike.

We won the Ivy title in 1988 - though we did have to share it with Penn.

Beeeej

Okay, I'm confused. Where did you all see this supposed first-place vote? Did they put it in there yesterday by mistake? 'cause it's certainly not there now at [www.uscollegehockey.com].

Beeeej

The first place vote is in the USA Today poll, not the USCHO poll. That poll is not updated yet for this week on USCHO.

The first-place vote to which everyone (other than you) are referring came in the USA Today poll.

Aha!! Thanks muchly, Josh & CULater. I'm sure I'll be awake soon.

(Checks USA Today website)

Okay, so why doesn't the 1st place vote show on their website, [www.usatoday.com]?

Beeeej

So, the Big Red have something in common with the top 4 teams in the polls -- fewest overall losses (5).

(testing edit function):

...Oh, and it sure is sweet to see Cornell one notch higher than B.U.!

I can't figure out why the usatoday website doesn't have all of the first place votes, but the total votes work out to 19 voters voting for places 1 -15, so the chart above is probably correct.

(19 voters *(15+14+13+12 . . .) = 2280, which is what you get if you add all of the weighted votes.)

IIRC, there were 19 first place votes last week, as well.

And the copy of it on USCHO shows our first place vote, too.

I wonder if that was Mazzoleni?

Beeeej

Somebody already made that joke

I'm old and forgetful, have some respect. :-{P} <--homegrown goateed emoticon

Beeeej

Hey, Beeeej, if you ask nicely Age might make you a bearded emoticon image set.

I'm sure there's one on the web, too, if you're into finding it.