FB: Region 4 fan poll

[smedindy]

Wow, you dug that way out of the archives!

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Come on... hurry up and post the poll. I'm impatient and ready to be yelled at for who I put 10th
I had a bunch of teams all bunched together for 9th and 10th on my ballot and honestly I probably could have drawn names out of a hat and come up with equally good choices. Probably going to have teams move in and out from week to week until things settle out.

[wally_wabash]

Come on... hurry up and post the poll. I'm impatient and ready to be yelled at for who I put 10th

Mount Union?  You maniac!   

[smedindy]

I'm giving Wes a pass. It's been a tough week.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Just a heads-up: the poll MAY be a voter short the next two weeks.  I'll be in the Black Hills and not at all sure I'll get enough computer access to know whats going on.  (Of course, many will say I NEVER know whats going on! )

[wally_wabash]

I'll go ahead and post my ten here for this week just for fun.  It's been a rough week for our old pal Wes. 

1- Mount Union
2- Wabash

This has been the case on my ballot all season so far.  I think these are the two premiere defenses in the region and that matters a lot.  No, Wabash doesn't have any sexy results so far, so there is some leap of faith/benefit of the doubt going on there, but that's the case on pretty much any other ballot where Wabash is #2. 

3- Wittenberg
4- Heidelberg

These two teams moved way up for me this week (from 7 and 10, respectively).  I had previously said that H'berg was in position to move a lot if they showed well at ONU and they did.  So why did they jump the other teams in front of them?  Here's a quick highlight reel of these two teams' seasons so far:



5- IWU
6- NCC

These teams are in the same spot as last week for me, just reversed.  I slid NCC back one spot here because their previous opponents are not doing them favors.  UW-L has lost twice since beating NCC (yes, to good teams I know) and Redlands went back to SoCal and got beat up by PLU.

7- Baldwin Wallace

Kind of the one team that didn't really fit into a group for me this week.  They were dead to rights at John Carroll on Saturday night when the Streaks, protecting a 3 point lead with under two minutes to play, gambled with the Cover Zero defense and gave up an 80-some yard TD pass.  Whoops. 

8- Albion
9- Wheaton
10 - Benedictine

These are basically t-8th in my mind, but I had to put them in some kind of order because those are the rules.  I know the easy thing is to say Wheaton had a bad day at Albion, but I can't be sure if Wheaton had the bad day or if Albion had the bad day last weekend or if Benedictine had the bad day in Week 1.  So these teams will get lumped together this week.  Albion has a "prove it" game on Saturday, so there will be some movement amongst this group next week. 

Franklin dropped out after a bit of a ho-hummer against Manchester to make room for Benedictine.  As long as Franklin keeps winning (they should), they'll be back in my 10 before too long.  Elmhurst is also knocking on the door here and we'll know if they need to be on this list in a couple of weeks.  Also on my radar are OWU (who probably can't move into the ten next week if they beat CWRU on Saturday, but could probably get queued up for an appearance as their schedule is favorable for the next few weeks) and Concordia-Chicago.  I'll freely admit to not having paid much attention to the NathCon teams for this exercise before, but after they pasted the MIAA in those crossover games last weekend, I think I need to keep an eyeball on what's going on over there. 

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

here was the ballot I sent to Wes...

The top 8 wasn't too bad... after that it would have been easier to draw out of a hat.

1) Mount Union
2) North Central
3) Wabash
4) Illinois Wesleyan
5) Wheaton
6) Wittenberg
7) Heidelberg
8) Baldwin-Wallace
9) Elmhurst
10) Concordia-Chicago (I can already hear the board being befuddled)

In the group for 9th and 10th: Albion, Millikin, Franklin

[short]

Here was my Top 10

1. MUC
2. Wabash
3. Heidelberg
4. NC
5. Wheaton
6. IWU
7. Franklin
8. Elmhust
9. BW
10. Witt

[DPU3619]

I'll get this up in the morning. Sorry guys.

[DPU3619]

Without any further delay, here is this week's North Region Fan Poll.  Messy at the bottom.

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          58 pts (2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 7)
T4. Illinois Wesleyan    43 pts (3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8)
T4. Wheaton              43 pts (4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 7, 9)
6. Heidelberg              41 pts (3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, 8)
7. Wittenberg             35 pts (3, 3, 6, 6, 7, 9, 9, 10)
8. Baldwin-Wallace      33 pts (4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8, 9, 9)
9. Franklin                 18 pts (6, 6, 7, 8, 10, -, -, -)
10. Elmhurst                9 pts (8, 9, 9, 10, 10, -, -, -)

ARV
Albion                         6 pts (8, 9, 10, -, -, -, -, -)
John Carroll                 1pt (10, -, -, -, -, -, -, -)
Concordia (Ill.)            1pt  (10, -, -, -, -, -, -, -)
Benedectine                1pt (10, -, -, -, -, -, -, -)

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

[ExTartanPlayer]

Interesting variance in opinions on Wittenberg.  Two blowout wins over traditionally-decent programs (that are admittedly not looking so hot this year) look pretty good to me.  I know everyone has them ranked, but I'm mildly surprised that they're not in everyone's top 8.

Everything posted looks like it can be justified one way or another, though.  Shaping up to be a fascinating season.

[DPU3619]

The win over DePauw was enough for one of our voters.  Witt only had 1 3rd place vote a week ago. 

[wally_wabash]

If Reed Florence keeps playing quarterback the way he has through the first two games, then Witt is really, really good.  When Florence doesn't hand off, Wittenberg is gaining almost 11 yards per snap.  That's insane.  That cat can ball. 

[New Tradition]

These two teams moved way up for me this week (from 7 and 10, respectively).  I had previously said that H'berg was in position to move a lot if they showed well at ONU and they did.  So why did they jump the other teams in front of them?  Here's a quick highlight reel of these two teams' seasons so far:

HAHAHA now that's funny!

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

14 teams from 6 conferences got votes: 4 OAC, 4 CCIW, 2 NCAC, 2 NAthC, 1 MIAA, 1 HCAC
When's the last time 1 team from the NAthC got a vote let alone 2?
The poll basically mirrors my opinion... the top 8 are solid in whatever order you want to put them, then the next two are anyone's guess based on how you want to look at comparing strength of schedule, W/L, and history