Top 25 rankings

[Pat Coleman]

Actually, sakman, I think if you'd read the past couple of pages of discussion you'd find that Keith just doesn't agree with the assessment. And I'm sure Mary Hardin-Baylor doesn't, either.

[Sakman 1111]

If that is the case I stand correcetd.....

[Josh Bowerman]

Sorry for forgetting about that game, Keith.  That was a great road trip...

[K-Mack]

Good job K-Mack on the rankings.  I only have one comment.

I didnt think that Cortland St. was that good last year, and I dont think they deserve to be in the top 25.  Ill always give credit to Cortland teams when credit is due but Ithaca was a little better team than they were last year and I wasnt impressed with anyone on their team except for the kicker and Sair who I did notice was a pretty good d-back.

Just the fact that RPI beat them would make me put another LL team above them in the top 25.

You might well be right. I didn't feel comfortable putting distance between them and Rowan since they played into OT last year, and they both have significant losses off last year's team. As for the ECAC game, I probably read less into that than if it was a regular-season game. Might not be fair, but the disappointment factor, after going 9-1 with an overtime loss to a conference champ and not making the playoffs, had to play a role. But you make a good point. Perhaps I will take a closer look at RPI or an LL team in place of Cortland for the first D3football.com ballot. The Red Dragons did lose a ton in terms of seniors, although they have the QBs back and get some of the best NJAC opponents at home.

The top LL teams (Hobart and Union) had big losses too. And I put way too much stock into RPI last year (17 starters back, 11 on offense) and they let me down. 

And I under-ranked Cortland. Maybe that's a personal bias rearing its ugly head, but I think there's a case for Cortland being 16 if Rowan is really 15, since the Profs

[Pat Coleman]

One thing to keep in mind about Cortland is that Alex Smith was only a junior last year. He didn't play in any of the last five games after injuring his knee. If he's anywhere near full strength in 2007 then Cortland is miles better at quarterback than it was against Rowan and RPI.

['gro]

I put way too much stock into RPI last year (17 starters back, 11 on offense) and they let me down. 

even worse for the fans. 7-3 wasn't that bad, and 2 wins against playoff bound Union and playoff snub cortland gave some momentum for the offseason.  They should start the year off "also receiving votes".

[K-Mack]

Don't usually pay much attention to preseason polls but to rank Wesley ahead of Whitewater is simply ludicrous in my opinion. I have watched UWW manhandle Wesley two years in a row.....the Warhawks simply have too much talent left over from last year to ever lose to Wesley this year. If it wasn't for Wesley's fine safety making numerous touchdown saving tackles Whitewater would have been close to 100 points last year....now this year ranked behind them is more than puzzling. If they play again this year, no matter where, Wesley will be outcoached and outplayed again......even if they whine and have the cannon removed........

My last comment on preseason polls and Wesley ranked over UWW is that Whitewater will beat Wesley with whatever QB that is playing . For the last two years Wesley along with Lakeland has been one of their easiest games each year and that is from the players not me. To rank them above the Warhawks seems like you have gone a little wild over analyzing and ignored one very important factor-----Whitewater was and still is way better than Wesley.....

Actually, sakman, I think if you'd read the past couple of pages of discussion you'd find that Keith just doesn't agree with the assessment. And I'm sure Mary Hardin-Baylor doesn't, either.

Yeah, I'd go back to at least the top of page 43. This has been addressed here and on the Around the Nation thread.

I think anyone who thinks this year's Whitewater team is going to instantly be as good as the last two is doing a disservice to how good the last two were and how good everyone that's gone was. I couldn't very well start them off at number 2 given that at least half of their top difference-makers are gone. Maybe by the end of the year, after passing some of the tests they have scheduled for themselves, Whitewater will be back at No. 2 or 3. But I don't think we can assume that coming out of the gate.

If you think half of Whitewater's team last year would've beaten Wesley, then we just disagree. And that's fine.

See also: UWW-UMHB-Wesley triangle

Pat, Miles better ... pun intended?

QB injuries (I think they went down to fourth string) decimated the Cortland offense in the Rowan game. Definitely one of those beyond-the-final score details to take into account.

[K-Mack]

If nothing else, we're all getting a good discussion out of all of this.

Should be required reading for our voters 

Well, the kids are commandeering the computer for visits to Elmo's website, so I'll check y'all later this evening.

[@d3jason]

2.  On the Wesley pick at three....I guess my biggest problem with having the Wolves there is the fact that they're breaking in a new QB.  It's the same as the Texas Tech arguement down here--is it the QB or the system?  In Wesley's case, I think Warrick made the system.

Perhaps, but to play devil's advocate on this point, perhaps Jason Visconti made the system and Warrick followed.

Honest question:  Did Visconti's arrival coincide with Warrick's, or did was Warrick a recruit after Visconti's hiring?

Visconti played from 1998 until 2001. Warrick arrived in 2002, redshirted, and started all games from '03 until '06. Visconti didn't start in '98, but did see some action.

Incidentally, Wesley QB Jimmy Connelley '91-'94 finished among the career top 25 in passing rating at the time.

All three were tremendous quarterbacks in a good system (which, as in any good system has evolved.)

[repete]

Back about the time of the baseball draft. It was keyed to a two-sport Ole.

http://www.startribune.com/508/story/1151006.html

I suppose the Florida pipeline has to pay off one of these years.   Should be a good game this year.

Reusse's one of those "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" kind of guys. He'll take a jab at JG and the Johnnies just about any chance he gets. Goes back to the days when he and the late, great Mike Augustin were on the same staff at the Pioneer Press. Mike did a great job with the MIAC.

[Matt Barnhart (kid)]

[...] the problem with ranking an ODAC team is that there's five of them that could possibly be THE team this year, or at least factor into the discussion. Kind of makes it hard to pick a top 25 team.

I totally agree.  I think the competitiveness in the ODAC will pick up where it left off in 2006.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed our Mount Union-esque run through the ODAC from 2000 to 2005, but with four or five teams with a chance to win in 2007, it makes it a lot more interesting on Saturdays.

[finsleft]

Back about the time of the baseball draft. It was keyed to a two-sport Ole.

http://www.startribune.com/508/story/1151006.html

I suppose the Florida pipeline has to pay off one of these years.   Should be a good game this year.

Reusse's one of those "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" kind of guys. He'll take a jab at JG and the Johnnies just about any chance he gets. Goes back to the days when he and the late, great Mike Augustin were on the same staff at the Pioneer Press. Mike did a great job with the MIAC.

Repete-
+K for the Auggie reference. Goes back a little farther to when Auggie and Reusse were cutting their journalistic teeth at the Daily Planet, a/k/a the St. Cloud Times. Auggie was a great one, covered the MIAC and the college sports scene better than anyone and, though you wouldn't be able to tell from reading his coverage, was also an SJU grad. (but then, aren't all the great ones?) 

[Sakman 1111]

I don't pretend to know where UWW should be ranked and I believe more than most understand how much the graduated Warhawks did mean to the team for the last two years.............my point is simply that given all that Wesley should not be ranked ahead of Whitewater because simply Whitewater was and still is a much better team.

[Jonny Utah]

I put way too much stock into RPI last year (17 starters back, 11 on offense) and they let me down. 

yea, and we were just talking about how Sprinfield has all those offensive players back.

[theoriginalupstate]

I put way too much stock into RPI last year (17 starters back, 11 on offense) and they let me down. 

yea, and we were just talking about how Sprinfield has all those offensive players back.

Springfield is, and only will be, a regular season team.  They run a gimmick offense that puts up points in the regular season under ideal conditions and then flops when the weather turns. They'll do nothing once they get to the playoffs, as usual, with no passing game.