Rats! Dartmouth could have helped move Cornell into the top eight had it knocked off Princeton. Instead, for the second week in a row it's Princeton at No. 8, Cornell at No. 9 in the USILA poll. Five of the seven Ivy schools are in the top 20. Not that the playoffs will be seeded according to the USILA poll, but you'd feel a lot better about the chances of getting home ice - er, turf - for the first round of the playoffs at No. 7 or No. 8. (And hopefully keeps you away from playing No. 1 Hopkins in the second round.) This presumes Cornell this weekend can knock back No. 17 Hobart, which came very close to upsetting No. 2 Navy.
USILA Coaches Polls for Divisions I-III (May 3)
Division I
1st Last
No Team Record Points Place Week
1 Johns Hopkins 10- 1- 0 200 10 1
2 Navy 12- 2- 0 189 2
3 Maryland 11- 2- 0 181 3
4 Syracuse 10- 2- 0 167 4
5 Georgetown 10- 2- 0 162 5
6 Ohio State 12- 2- 0 146 7
7 North Carolina 7- 4- 0 131 6
8 Princeton 8- 3- 0 129 8
9 Cornell 8- 3- 0 125 9
10 Rutgers 8- 4- 0 112 10
11 Towson 9- 4- 0 107 11
12 Notre Dame 7- 5- 0 84 12
13 Pennsylvania 7- 5- 0 75 14
14 Villanova 11- 2- 0 57 17
15 Virginia 5- 7- 0 56 13
16 Brown 8- 3- 0 54 15
17 Hobart 8- 6- 0 38 19
18 Army 9- 4- 0 35 18
19 Delaware 10- 5- 0 17 NR
20 Dartmouth 7- 5- 0 15 20
Others receiving votes: Denver 9, Duke 6, Binghamton 3, UMass 2.
What determines the NCAA seeding -- the polls or the computer rankings (in which Cornell is in the high teens)?
In '02 they said they relied heavily on RPI. If that's still the case, Cornell is sitting pretty for a home game at 6 in RPI. They also use the always shady "quality win" bonus; who knows how that shakes things up?
[Q]Chris '03 Wrote:
In '02 they said they relied heavily on RPI. If that's still the case, Cornell is sitting pretty for a home game at 6 in RPI. They also use the always shady "quality win" bonus; who knows how that shakes things up?[/q]
RPI criterion is good for us, as Chris points out. Quality win criterion is shakier. See this tabulation: http://forums.laxpower.com/read.php?f=1&i=117955&t=117955
In any case, neither selection nor seeding seems to be as "formularized" as in hockey.
Keep in mind, also, that the NCAA is all about money and with Ithaca as the northern site for this year's quarterfinals, I wouldn't be surprised if that helps Cornell. The NCAA would probably love to have CU and SU in the two games in Ithaca on May 23.
One hopes they have more flexibility than the college hockey seeders. All the flexibility Cornell needs is home field for the first round and then being in the north bracket where the quarterfinal games are played at Schoellkopf.
I suppose the other schools would cry foul that Cornell gets home field advantage for two straight games (assuming it wins in round one) but, heck, Michigan has taken advantage of that in hockey by being the host school (albeit not the host site) when NCAA regionals are in Grand Rapids. Also, I believe to the extent it has flexibility in placing equal (nearly equivalent?) seeds, the NCAA is supposed to think about the quality of the tournament draw, meaning more people will show up at Schoellkopf if Cornell plays at Schoellkopf.
I also want to see a good turnout in the north because I'm getting tired of this crap coming out of Maryland and points south that the best place for a lacrosse final is Baltimore as evidenced by the incredible turnouts there. That might have a lot to do with Syracuse and Princeton giving the southern schools a chance at one or both of the title-contender slots.
Giants Stadium would be fine, too, as would (maybe) Rutgers.
[Q]billhoward Wrote:
heck, Michigan has taken advantage of that in hockey by being the host school (albeit not the host site) when NCAA regionals are in Grand Rapids. [/q]
Well, actually, they have taken advantage of that in hockey by being the host school and the host site. U of M's Yost Arena was a regional site in 1998, 2002, and 2003. Oddly enough, Michigan made the Frozen Four each of those years.
When Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids is a Regional site, Western Michigan or Michigan Tech are usually the host schools.
[Q]Chris '03 Wrote:
In '02 they said they relied heavily on RPI. If that's still the case, Cornell is sitting pretty for a home game at 6 in RPI. They also use the always shady "quality win" bonus; who knows how that shakes things up?[/q]
The single most important factor that year was number of wins against the top 5 in RPI. (So it's not your RPI so much as the RPI of the teams you've beat that matters.) There was a bit of a backlash against that the following year.
As wacky as the "system" is, at least it doesn't involve polls of any sort.
are here: http://www.laxswami.com/tw04-11.html
the site is very informative about college lacrosse, but in the eyes of a first-time visitor, it's also very idiosyncratic... ;-)
who are the ivyman, miss venus lee, STaTs, and swampy (to name just a few)?
just to let you guys know that if anyone is planning on attending the games in ithaca the weekend of the 22nd hotels may be a little harder to come by than normal even though it is between graduation weekends. my wedding has booked some rooms up but not tons :) just a heads up. of course if cornell is playing that day i may have to have someone run down and check the score ;-)
the selection show is gonna be interesting monday