FB: Region 4 fan poll

[Mr. Ypsi]

Since Chicago is now up to (#26) on the d3football.com poll, and is still listed in the North region team pages, we need a definitive ruling: IS Chicago eligible for the North Region Fan Poll (despite being a member of a South region conference)?

I was out-of-town this weekend until about an hour ago and am just catching up, but I notice they have gone to 3-0 (including beating formerly #21 Centre), and might crack the bottom of my ballot IF they are considered eligible.  IF they keep winning, the poll could be skewed if some vote for them but others don't only because they assume them to be a South team.

Sorry to put you on the spot, Wally, but you IS the referee this season!   [Once regional rankings come out we can know for sure, but we have several polls between now and then.]

I think I'm saying no to Chicago as a North Region team.  When the UAA was it's own thing, the teams were scattered in three different regions, but the UAA also didn't award an AQ.  Every other conference that has had some weird things going on geographically has always just included those weird teams in the predominant geographical region (DPU and RHIT were South teams when they were in the SCAC, Wesley, CNU, and SoVA have switched from south to east, etc.).  I think Chicago is a South team for the next season and a half.

Thanks for the quick reply, Wally.  That cuts my candidates for the final 5-6 spots by one!

[ADL70]

Couldn't find a link to the Handbook, but if memory serves CWRU (PAC) was moved to South last season, so one would think Chicago would this season.

[Captain_Joe08]

Had a hard time picking my ballot since there was three losses among ranked and receiving votes and nearly half the teams did not play this weekend.

[wally_wabash]

I think everybody is in.  I'll have the poll up this evening.  You guys are crushing it with the promptness this season.  +k's around! 

[wally_wabash]

And here is your North Region Fan Poll through Week 4:


1- Mount Union (3-0)        80 points (1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1)
2- Wheaton (3-0)            71 points (2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3)
3- Wabash (3-0)             65 points (2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3)
4- John Carroll (3-0)       47 points (4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 9)
5- North Central (1-2)      44 points (4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, x)
6- Illinois Wesleyan (3-0)  40 points (4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8)
7- Wittenberg (2-1)         29 points (6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 8, 10)
8- Albion (3-0)             26 points (5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 8, 10, 10)
9- DePauw (3-0)             19 points (6, 6, 8, 9, 9, 9, x, x)
10- Olivet (3-0)            8 points (8, 8, 10, 10, x, x, x, x)

ORV:
Ohio Northern (2-1)         4 points (9, 9, x, x, x, x, x, x)
Rose Hulman (3-0)           3 points (9, 10, x, x, x, x, x, x)
Franklin (2-2)              2 points (10, 10, x, x, x, x, x, x)
Adrian (2-1)                2 points (9, x, x, x, x, x, x, x)



The NRFP is voted on by: Captain_Joe08, Dr. Acula, FCGrizzliesGrad, Li'l Giant, Mr Ypsi, NCF, USee, and wally wabash.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Two comments:

I'm the most green-blooded voter here, so I was pleasantly shocked that IWU beat out Witt by such a big margin for 6th.  (In fact, Witt's #6 vote is me; I'm one of IWU's #7 votes.)  The margin of Wabash's win over Witt (IN C'ville) was only a mild surprise to me - I fully expected the LG's to win by 2+ TDs.  Still, I'm not prepared to say that IWU would be favored on a neutral field over Witt - though I'd love to see that game!

The voter who completely left NCC off his ballot needs to be less dogmatic about early season losses!  They lost in OT AT the #14 team in the country, and lost by ONE point to the #5 team.  And they have a gifted freshman QB (plus plenty of other very young players) - I'm guessing they might have won both games if they were later in the season.  (They led both games entering the 4th Q; one problem with inexperience is being unable to hang on to leads in the clutch.)  They will probably not make it to the postseason (I can't see them beating both Wheaton and IWU), but they are a legitimate top 25 team, and certainly a top ten in the North Region.

 

[Li'l Giant]

They will probably not make it to the postseason (I can't see them beating both Wheaton and IWU), but they are a legitimate top 25 team, and certainly a top ten in the North Region.

That's my ballot.

I agree with the above (where I have supplied emphasis). And if that prediction holds then NCC is a team that will end up with 4 losses having lost to all of the best teams they played. What does that really say?

I understand the theory behind a "quality loss" but at some point you have to win games. If a team scheduled their 10 games against UWW, Mount, Linfield, UMHB, Wesley, Wartburg, Wheaton, Wabash, St. Thomas, and JHU and lost them all by small margins, does that really mean they're the 11th best team in the country? With no wins but a bunch of "quality" losses?

I think they need to win a game against someone better than Trine (and upcoming Millikin, North Park and Carthage).

Oh, and I had IWU 5th. 

[wally_wabash]

I had a tough time with this this week.  Particularly with North Central and John Carroll.  On my first pass, I had North Central down at 9, but further scrutiny slid them all the way up to 6.  Ultimately, I couldn't keep Witt ahead of North Central (Witt's got a pretty significant offensive balance problem) and the more I thought about John Carroll the more I can't really keep giving them the benefit of the doubt.  If JCU wasn't in a quarterfinal last year and were somebody like Otterbein with the exact same results, there's no way they'd be ranked in this top 10 (to say nothing of the national top 10).  So I'm the 9 for JCU.  They're one more 17-14 game away from getting tossed.  That's just not really a good team, IMO. 

And then as promised last week, Franklin sort of needed to be super impressive from here on out to stay in and they weren't vs. Bluffton. So Franklin out, Olivet in for me. 

And I also moved Wabash up to 2 ahead of Wheaton.  These are pretty even teams in my mind, but Wabash now has a really strong win in region (best result in region to date) so they jump up one. 

[USee]

I moved North Central up from 5 to 4th because I beleive they are the 4th best team and I can easily see them winning out.  IWU was 5 and Witt 6.  Olivet Depauw Albion at the bottom. No change for me.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

My order this week... Mount Union, Wheaton, Wabash, North Central, John Carroll, Albion, Illinois Wesleyan, Wittenberg, DePauw, Rose-Hulman.
On my top 25 ballot I have Wheaton 7 and Wabash 8 and are quite close so it's possible I could flip them at some point.

My number 11 didn't get a single vote... I have Elmhurst there this week.

[USee]

I have Wheaton and Wabash close as well. But they do have a HTH result that I witnessed. And, while it was a scrimmage and only a half of real game for the starters, Wabash got zero first downs against the Wheaton D. The LG d was also dominant but the Thunder managed 3-4 first downs and 7 pts with a short field. It's not much and these teams are close, but it's enough for me to keep Wheaton ahead by a smidge as I have real concerns about the Wabash O.  Their D is the real deal.

[Dr. Acula]

My ballot was the same as the poll again this week I believe.  The issue JCU is going to present is that if they beat ONU this week they're coasting into Ott at 8-0.  In all likelihood they're waltzing into the Mount game 9-0.  So if everyone's suspicions about JCU are true we aren't going to find out until the bitter end.

[wally_wabash]

h/t to wabndy for posting the link first...

We've been ahead of the official word here, but officially according to the NCAA prechampionship manual for 2015 Chicago is definitely a South region team this year (and next presumably). 

[Gregory Sager]

Well, the U of C is on the South Side of Chicago, after all.

[Dr. Acula]

Looks like the games to watch today are Olivet/Adrian and JCU/ONU.  Those appear to be the best match ups on paper.  Not our region, but I'm excited to watch the W&J/TMC game too.  That could be a track meet.