FB: Region 4 fan poll

[DPU3619]

I have six because five people responded to my request for volunteers at this time last year.  I don't need 15 people to participate in a regional fan poll.  I don't have the time or the patience to calculate that many ballots anyway. 

If you'd like to participate newcardfan, send me a message with your 10 team ballot on Sunday after the first week of games.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Nah, cardfan, it's a lot more fun to NOT be in the poll and then yell/scream about the idiots who ARE in the poll.

Hmmmmm:)

Of course, you can be a voter and still yell/scream about the OTHER idiots in the poll!

(Alas, my ballot fit in quite nicely with the total results.  Maybe next week! )

Wes, hurry up with this week's poll, so I know whether or not to "yell/scream about the OTHER idiot voters"!

[DPU3619]

Sorry for the delay here friends.  One of our voters chose to take vacation during football season.  *cough* wally wabash *cough*  Here's the Week 2 North Region Fan Poll.  We're adding a new voter this week.  Please welcome short to the poll.  I'd love to get one more just for an even 8.  Again, newcardfan, if you're truly interested, I need a ballot.  This week is 70 pts possible instead of 60.

1. Mount Union           70 pts (1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1)
2. Wabash                 62 pts (2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3)
3. Wheaton                50 pts (2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5)
4. North Central          43 pts (3, 4, 4, 4, 6, 6, 7)
5. IWU                      34 pts (5, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8)
6. Franklin                 33 pts (5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6, 8)
7. Baldwin-Wallace      29 pts (4, 5, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9)
8. Wittenberg             26 pts (3, 4, 7, 8, 8, 10, -)
9. Heidelberg              15 pts (4, 8, 9, 10, 10, 10, -)
10. Albion                  14 pts (7, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, -)


ARV:
Elmhurst                     1 pt (10, -, -, -, -, -, -)
Carthage                    1 pt (10, -, -, -, -, -, -)
Case Western Reserve  1 pt (10, -, -, -, -, -, -)


The North Region Fan Poll is voted on by Wes Anderson, wally_wabash, smedindy, ADL70, Mr. Ypsi, FCGrizzlesGrad, and short.

[DPU3619]

Now for some analysis.  One of our voters thinks that Wittenberg is better than Wheaton, Franklin, North Central, and IWU.  Can't say I agree.  Another voter thinks Heidelberg is better than Franklin, North Central, and IWU.  Can't say I agree there either.

The difference in opinion on Wittenberg really puzzles me.  One has them 3rd and another has them out entirely.  I'm in the middle somewhere.  I can understand the confusion with North Central.  It's hard to tell exactly how to drop a national power after one game.  I agree with most of you that I don't really know what to do with IWU, Franklin, and BW.  It's interchangeable to me right now.  Same with the bottom 3 or 4 in the poll.  Maybe it's Albion, maybe it's Heidi, maybe it's CWRU, and maybe it's somebody else entirely.

[ExTartanPlayer]

One of our voters thinks that Wittenberg is better than Wheaton, Franklin, North Central, and IWU. 

Another voter thinks Heidelberg is better than Franklin, North Central, and IWU.  Can't say I agree there either.

And we run into the age-old question of polls (which I'm just PRESENTING, not giving a strong opinion about): do you rank the teams strictly based "who would win on a neutral field" or do you rank them based on "which team has the best achievement to date"?  Remember our mud-slinging last year after Muskingum beat Ohio Northern and several voters kept a 2-2 ONU team ranked while leaving 4-0 Muskingum out of the poll, using the "I still think Ohio Northern is better" argument (which was borne out by the results by the END of the season, but not by the results at that point in time).

That may explain some of the discrepancies you listed above.  Wittenberg opened the season with a 44-17 road thrashing of a Capital team that's generally a mid-to-upper echelon OAC team.  That's arguably a "better" game than what the others mentioned posted in Week 1.  Franklin and North Central both lost (admittedly to top-notch competition), Wheaton and IWU both won against opposition somewhat less distinguished than Capital.

Now, admittedly, I'm playing devil's advocate here, and there are fine arguments going the opposite direction.  Wheaton and IWU did manhandle their NATHC opponents, Franklin opened with a Purple Power, and I'd probably agree with you that they still belong above Witt in the rankings.  With that said, I can see a voter arguing that Wittenberg deserves to be up there based on a strong Week 1 showing on the road against a traditionally-strong OAC opponent.

[wally_wabash]

I moved North Central down to #6 this week.  North Central lost, at home, to a team that did not receive a single top 25 vote before Sunday.  There's a poll penalty to pay for that.  The good news for NCC is that they have games on their schedule that, if they really are the first or second best team in the region, will compensate for that UW-L result. 

[smedindy]

Of course, losing to a unranked WIAC team isn't like losing to an unranked MIAA team, Wally. I think a team like LAX could definitely be 'in the mix' in most every conference in D-3

[wally_wabash]

Of course, losing to a unranked WIAC team isn't like losing to an unranked MIAA team, Wally. I think a team like LAX could definitely be 'in the mix' in most every conference in D-3

Oh sure.  And if UW-L keeps on winning and exceeds expectations, then that result on 9/1 will hurt NCC less and less.  But I don't think it's fair to project UW-L's season arc at this point.  As we get more and more pieces to the puzzle and the picture gets more complete and clear. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

Well, no 'yelling/screaming' from me again this week - my ballot exactly matched the poll, with the minor exceptions of flipping BW/Witt and Heidi/Albion.

Somewhat surprised that no one took a flyer on JCU at the bottom of their ballot - that was one impressive first win!  On the other hand, I do realize it has been several years since their last winning record.  If we went more than 10, I might have had to flip a coin between them and Case for 11th.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Well, no 'yelling/screaming' from me again this week - my ballot exactly matched the poll, with the minor exceptions of flipping BW/Witt and Heidi/Albion.

My ballot was very similar to the poll as well. Flipped Wheaton/Wabash and had Elmhurst instead of Albion. Case would have been my 11th team.

[DPU3619]

Here's the Week 3 North Region Fan Poll.  Almost every voter said either "I moved a bunch of stuff around" or "This was really hard."  Be advised this is out of 80 possible, as newcardfan will be our 8th voter from here on out.

1. Mount Union                80 pts  (1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1)
2. Wabash                      71 pts (2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3)
3. North Central               57 pts (2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 7)
4. IWU                           47 pts (3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 6, 8, 8)
5. Albion                         43 pts (4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6)
6. Wheaton                     37 pts (5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8)
7. Baldwin-Wallace           33 pts (3, 5, 7, 7, 7, 8, 9, 9)
8. Franklin                      25 pts (4, 5, 8, 8, 9, 9, 9, -)
9. Wittenberg                 24 pts (3, 7, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10, -)
10. Heidelberg                 16 pts (3, 8, 9, 10, 10, 10, -)

ARV:
Case Western Reserve       2 pts (10, 10, -, -, -, -, -, -)
Elmhurst                          1 pt (10, -, -, -, -, -, -, -)
Carthage                         1 pt (10, -, -, -, -, -, -, -)


The North Region Fan Poll is voted on by Wes Anderson, wally_wabash, smedindy, ADL70, Mr. Ypsi, FCGrizzlesGrad, short, and newcardfan.

[DPU3619]

This thing is weird, man.  Here's my thoughts: 

I'm the 3rd place vote for IWU, just because I refuse to put a 1 loss team there in Week 3.  I don't see what the problem is with IWU compared to Wheaton, Albion, or BW, who some voters have ranked above them.  But, the fact that 5 teams get a 3rd place vote says enough about what we think as a group.

Franklin is a weird team to place, too.  0-2, but it's to Mount Union and Butler.  Not sure what I should do.  I hate dropping them.  But I can't just ignore it, you know?

[NCF]

This thing is weird, man.  Here's my thoughts: 

I'm the 3rd place vote for IWU, just because I refuse to put a 1 loss team there in Week 3.  I don't see what the problem is with IWU compared to Wheaton, Albion, or BW, who some voters have ranked above them.  But, the fact that 5 teams get a 3rd place vote says enough about what we think as a group.

Franklin is a weird team to place, too.  0-2, but it's to Mount Union and Butler.  Not sure what I should do.  I hate dropping them.  But I can't just ignore it, you know?

This was a hard week and no I'm not the #2 vote for NC, but I did think about it for awhile. I couldn't put IWU at #3 yet as they haven't had a tough game. I did have a problem with Wheaton, but 6th(for this week at least) seemed right. In a few weeks things will begin to clear up a little, unless the CCIW has a wild and crazy season. Thanks for letting me join.

[wally_wabash]

We are all over the place on this thing!  Witt 3rd or out? IWU 3rd or 8th? Franklin 4th or out? B-W 3rd or 9th?  Heidelberg 3rd or out?  Yikes.  We're all shaking different 8 balls. 

I'm the high man on B-W and Albion (3 and 4, respectively).  B-W is a bit of a question mark and is admittedly getting some benefit of the doubt from me.  I think we'll find out a little bit about how good B-W is this weekend.  I have Albion ahead of NCC, IWU, and Wheaton (obviously) for now but that can and probably will change as the season goes along.  Unless Albion mauls everybody by 5 TDs every week, the quality of the results from the top level CCIW teams will eventually push them ahead of the Britons. 

[ExTartanPlayer]

You guys have a tough job this early. 

Albion beating Wheaton definitely mucks things up quite a bit, as does North Central's loss.  It will be very hard to sort of the CCIW triangle until they actually play one another.

Franklin will also be hard to place until the playoffs, frankly.  Even if they run the table in the HCAC, without many games against common opponents, how can you really figure out where they belong?

If B-W and Heidelberg both hold serve throughout the OAC season, their matchup in the last week of the regular season will be fascinating...but it also means it might be tough to place them in these rankings for a while unless somebody drops one along the way.

Probably not going to figure out exactly where Witt belongs until 9/29 (CWRU) and 10/6 (Wabash), but those two results will help sort things out a bit.