1/25 Poll Weirdness

[jkahn]

So...in the USA Today poll, Cornell drops from 7th to 8th for splitting with the 6th place team,and the 6th place team moves up to 4th for splitting with the 7th place team? How does that make sense?

The USCHO poll is much more reasonable, with both Cornell and UND moving up a spot.

I know these are polls,and trying to understand the logic behind them is silly, but this oddness just really jumped out at me, and I had to vent. Figured this was the right place.

The analysis on this thread is all in a Cornell - No. Dakota vacuum, forgetting the fact that there are other teams and other results.  In the USCHO poll, we were behind Colorado College and Ferris State last week.  They both also split games this weekend, but as their splits weren't as impressive to some voters as ours was, we passed them both.  CC and Ferris State were already behind us in the USA Today poll.  In both polls, St. Cloud and Bemidji moved ahead of us with their sweeps and UMD dropped behind us, being swept by Bemidji.  Hence, up one spot for USCHO and down one for USA Today.

Of course, Age's point that we shouldn't have an expectation of the polls being meaningful is also valid.

And, the only ranking that really matters in the end is PWR.

[marty]

WHAT?! Polls don't make sense?! The very foundation of my being has been shattered by this revelation! I'm going to go sit quietly in
 the corner for a bit to contemplate this.

or, to say it another way, who cares, why do you care?

Now to jump to an equally ridiculous idea, the Troy Record has an article on RPI-Union playing an outdoor game. I'm reading about "the first outdoor AHL game" being played in Syracuse, and I wonder why the Syr Crunch don't spend more time on trying to figure out how to win some games. Polls and outdoor hockey games are similar, they're nice to talk about but they have no meaning.

Ed Weaver is a very nice man who occasionally writes cogent articles.   Not even close on this issue.  Why would cash strapped RPI or anyone else in the Capital District consider wasting money on a second rate outdoor rink?today's Times Union

[Trotsky]

We've stayed so high all year because we have been annointed a "top program" by the collective college hockey world. (Or at least a quality program.)  This makes me happy.

Probably.  It could be the consensus of voters who have seen us play is that we're legitimately a strong team.  But Occam's Razor suggests voters are lazy and ignorant and just parrot back the rankings of other years, with minor adjustments for current record.

[Al DeFlorio]

We've stayed so high all year because we have been annointed a "top program" by the collective college hockey world. (Or at least a quality program.)  This makes me happy.

Probably.  It could be the consensus of voters who have seen us play is that we're legitimately a strong team.  But Occam's Razor suggests voters are lazy and ignorant and just parrot back the rankings of other years, with minor adjustments for current record.

Certainly true in lacrosse.