Posters' Poll

[Smitty Oom]

I might do one for this week to warm up anyway!

But yes, I think there should be 3 of us out there that would be wanting to do this!

[Mr. Ypsi]

I doubt I could participate THIS week.  It's been a hectic day in Ypsi.  The arctic grip finally loosened today, which was a mixed blessing.  The dishwasher and ice-maker have both been out of service for a couple weeks, due to frozen lines.  Today the lines thawed, and the kitchen and basement flooded from the dishwasher spewing out water even though it was not turned on (line survived, according to the plumber, but valve in the dishwasher was shot, and drain pipe was still frozen, so....)  Had to turn off water to the whole house to stop the flood.  Tomorrow will be appliance repairman (hopefully), and then (perhaps) plumber again.  This has been a continuing problem due to lack of adequate insulation around the edges of the kitchen - if the temps drop to near zero for an extended period, the lines freeze and often destroy the appliances.

Memo to self: find SOME contractor who can solve insulation problem without having to completely tear down house!

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Due to the last minute nature, Ypsi being unable to go, and still recruiting folks I have decided that there will not be an official poll for this week. However if you want to prepare, go ahead and make your ballot and I'll give a simplified "preseason" poll on Tuesday. The following week will be the first full poll.

To submit your ballot you simply PM me your list. The best format is simply number every team with one team per line... and try to make sure I know which team you've chosen. I have the occasional issue in the football poll when someone starts using initials or shortened forms for teams that leave multiple possibilities (for instance is 'CM' Carnegie Mellon or Concordia Moorhead? or is 'Whit' Whitman, Whitworth, Whittier)
This is how the final football poll looked this season as a reference to how this will look.

[Greek Tragedy]

I'm gonna pass. The expanded fantasy leagues keep me more than busy.

[Smitty Oom]

Well here is my first ever top 25. Let me know what you think, Im sure I have a couple things I over looked or didnt take into account.

1   Whitman
2   Yorkpa
3   Swarthmore
4   UW-River Falls
5   UW-Whitewater
6   Whitworth
7   Augustana
8   Washington U.
9   St. John's
10   Wittenberg
11   Williams
12   Wesleyan
13   MIT
14   Nebraska Wesleyan
15   UW-Oshkosh
16   Hamilton
17   Middlebury
18   Ohio Wesleyan
19   Eastern Connecticut
20   Emory
21   IWU
22   Baldwin Wallace
23   John Carroll
24   Skidmore
25   Augsburg
ORV   Platteville
ORV   St. Norbert's
ORV   Emory & Henry
ORV   Buena Vista

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Nebraska Wesleyan is the only one that seems like a head-scratcher to me.  Gaudy record, but one of the weakest schedules I've ever seen.  They got rocked in their first conference game by a mid-level team.  That's a tough one, although you may have seen something I haven't.  Everything else is entirely defensible.  I have four of the same top five.

[Smitty Oom]

Nebraska Wesleyan is the only one that seems like a head-scratcher to me.  Gaudy record, but one of the weakest schedules I've ever seen.  They got rocked in their first conference game by a mid-level team.  That's a tough one, although you may have seen something I haven't.  Everything else is entirely defensible.  I have four of the same top five.

Yup. Very fair. I knew this was going to be the main difference from my top 25 and most other posters. They are getting arguably their best player back into form with Schimonitz, plus they were very good without him. It may be a biased, as I have watched this team play and I really like the Prarie Wolves offensive fire power and length on defense. With just one slip up against BVU on their resume (I admittedly didn't watch any of this game), I am still going to buy in. Now with two more tough IIAC games this week at Loras and at Dubuque, if they don't preform how I think they can I won't be afraid to move them down.

[Greek Tragedy]

They are at Loras and host Dubuque. If they don't win both of those, well then...

[smedindy]

I;m in.

[me]

Nebraska Wesleyan is the only one that seems like a head-scratcher to me.  Gaudy record, but one of the weakest schedules I've ever seen.  They got rocked in their first conference game by a mid-level team.  That's a tough one, although you may have seen something I haven't.  Everything else is entirely defensible.  I have four of the same top five.

I don't think they have that weak a schedule, they just beaten anyone good enough to get a read on them. I don't think their schedule is appreciably worse than Whitman's.

Haha you'd probably love my top 5 then...I have I think 2 of these.

[KnightSlappy]

Nebraska Wesleyan is the only one that seems like a head-scratcher to me.  Gaudy record, but one of the weakest schedules I've ever seen.  They got rocked in their first conference game by a mid-level team.  That's a tough one, although you may have seen something I haven't.  Everything else is entirely defensible.  I have four of the same top five.

Yup. Very fair. I knew this was going to be the main difference from my top 25 and most other posters. They are getting arguably their best player back into form with Schimonitz, plus they were very good without him. It may be a biased, as I have watched this team play and I really like the Prarie Wolves offensive fire power and length on defense. With just one slip up against BVU on their resume (I admittedly didn't watch any of this game), I am still going to buy in. Now with two more tough IIAC games this week at Loras and at Dubuque, if they don't preform how I think they can I won't be afraid to move them down.

I have Nebraska Wesleyan in the Top 5, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[me]

Oh heck I might as well post it

1. Whitman
2. Wittenberg
3. St. John's
4. Augustana
5. York
6. John Carroll
7. Baldwin Wallace
8. UW-River Falls
9. Washington U
10. UW-Whitewater
11. Whitworth
12. Swarthmore
13. UW-Platteville
14. Wartburg
15. Augsburg
16. Illinois Wesleyan
17. Ohio Wesleyan
18. Marietta
19. UW-Oshkosh
20. MIT
Can I just stop here?
21. Hamilton
22. Emory & Henry
23. Wheaton IL
24. Franklin & Marshall
25. LeTourneau I think (I skipped a number, had to add 25 on later)

I didn't really want to vote for any of the last 5. If I had voted for teams other than these they would have been more OAC, CCIW, WIAC, MIAC...so more yowling from people, probably. So I tried to reward good starts from teams that at least tried to schedule well.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

I've got 5 ballots so far (which includes the two posted here) for the "preseason" poll and we're now up to 11 people participating. Things are looking good.
Of those 5 ballots, there's 43 teams receiving a vote and only 8 on all ballots.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Nebraska Wesleyan is the only one that seems like a head-scratcher to me.  Gaudy record, but one of the weakest schedules I've ever seen.  They got rocked in their first conference game by a mid-level team.  That's a tough one, although you may have seen something I haven't.  Everything else is entirely defensible.  I have four of the same top five.

Yup. Very fair. I knew this was going to be the main difference from my top 25 and most other posters. They are getting arguably their best player back into form with Schimonitz, plus they were very good without him. It may be a biased, as I have watched this team play and I really like the Prarie Wolves offensive fire power and length on defense. With just one slip up against BVU on their resume (I admittedly didn't watch any of this game), I am still going to buy in. Now with two more tough IIAC games this week at Loras and at Dubuque, if they don't preform how I think they can I won't be afraid to move them down.

I did watch the BV game, which probably doesn't help.  They just looked way overmatched.  Maybe it's the step up from the level of competition they'd had to IIAC levels - hopefully they'll be contenders.  It's a fun offense to watch.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

I've had 7 ballots (which is more than I expected on such short notice) so here's the "preseason" poll.
Only 7 teams appeared on all seven ballots. Next week when we have everyone in I'll give the full rundown of votes.

Rank	Team	Points
1)	Whitman (6)	174
2)	Augustana	145
3)	York (PA)	141
4)	St John's	126
5)	UW-Whitewater	123
6)	Wittenberg	123
7)	Swarthmore	118
8)	UW-River Falls	115
9)	Whitworth	108
10)	Washington U	97
11)	MIT (1)	91
12)	Hamilton	82
13)	UW-Oskhosk	82
14)	Ohio Wesleyan	73
15)	Wesleyan	67
16)	Williams	67
17)	John Carroll	61
18)	Middlebury	50
19)	Marietta	46
20)	Baldwin Wallace	43
21)	Nebraska Wesleyan	40
22)	UW-Platteville	37
23)	Emory	29
24)	Skidmore	27
25)	Illinois Wesleyan	20

Also Receiving Votes: Eastern Connecticut 19, Augsburg 17, Lycoming 16, St Norbert 16, New Jersey City 15, Wartburg 15, Franklin & Marshall 13, Juniata 13, Ohio Northern 13, Emory & Henry 10, Amherst 9, TCNJ 8, North Central (IL) 6, Nichols 5, Albright 4, Maryville 4, Wheaton (IL) 3, Buena Vista 2, LeTourneau 1, St Thomas 1