FB: Region 6 fan poll

[hazzben]

I have sympathy for the Rd 1 Belton trips. I don't have sympathy for having to win on the road. In the playoffs, the better teams will get it done. It's not like you have to play on the road at a stadium with 80k+ fans, where crowd noise actually makes communication hard, etc. The SCIAC will get it's shot to make a statement this year (I think you have two very good teams). But not being able to win in Rd 1 is on the teams, regardless of where you're playing.

Anecdotally, I think going on the road was a major boon for Bethel in 2007 and 2010. You get away with the team, it's a bonding experience, and it allows for extra focus in a lot of ways (aka, no one is hanging out with their girlfriend on Friday night).

[DuffMan]

Anecdotally, I think going on the road was a major boon for Bethel in 2007 and 2010. You get away with the team, it's a bonding experience, and it allows for extra focus in a lot of ways (aka, no one is hanging out with their girlfriend on Friday night).

100% agreed!

2000, we traveled to:  UW-Stout, PLU, Central, Hardin-Simmons, and the Stagg
2001, we played SNC and UW-SP at home, PLU in the Fargodome, and at MUC
2002, we played Redlands and Coe at home, and at Linfield and Trinity

Home playoff games are great for fans, but those trips are awesome team time, and I have some great memories of those trips.

No one will argue that round 1 at UMHB is a tough draw, though!

[TheChucker]

Anecdotally, I think going on the road was a major boon for Bethel in 2007 and 2010. You get away with the team, it's a bonding experience, and it allows for extra focus in a lot of ways (aka, no one is hanging out with their girlfriend on Friday night).

100% agreed!

2000, we traveled to:  UW-Stout, PLU, Central, Hardin-Simmons, and the Stagg
2001, we played SNC and UW-SP at home, PLU in the Fargodome, and at MUC
2002, we played Redlands and Coe at home, and at Linfield and Trinity

Home playoff games are great for fans, but those trips are awesome team time, and I have some great memories of those trips.

No one will argue that round 1 at UMHB is a tough draw, though!

I'm curious, why did you guys play at the Fargo Dome?

[DuffMan]

I'm curious, why did you guys play at the Fargo Dome?

The UW-SP game was played in a downpour, and the field was basically destroyed (that was actually the last game on the grass at Clemens).  Then, we got dumped with 12+" of snow that Sunday-Monday, so the field was not playable.

[wif]

2 things - DuffMan you need to update the footer on the bottom of your posts to include 2019 in the MIAC champion area. 

Also, in regard to the upcoming seedings, when was the last time (if ever) the MIAC AQ team did not get at least 1 home game?

[sncsid]

I'm curious, why did you guys play at the Fargo Dome?

The UW-SP game was played in a downpour, and the field was basically destroyed (that was actually the last game on the grass at Clemens).  Then, we got dumped with 12+" of snow that Sunday-Monday, so the field was not playable.

The week before was my first trip to Clemens as SID here at St. Norbert, and the weather for that game was absolutely gorgeous. Temperature around 60 IIRC.

[DuffMan]

The week before was my first trip to Clemens as SID here at St. Norbert, and the weather for that game was absolutely gorgeous. Temperature around 60 IIRC.

I'll trust your memory.  I tend to remember the bad weather moreso than the good.  2001 UW-SP was cold and rainy.  2002 Coe was brutally cold.  2000 PLU poured like crazy.

[Gray Fox]

The 2004 Oxy game with Concordia Moorhead was also played at the Fargo Dome.

[02 Warhawk]

        2019 Week 10 West Region Fan Poll

Rank      Team           Previous    Points       
1)   UW-Whitewater (9)     1          90 
2)   St. John's            2          75         
t3)   Chapman               5          66       
t3)   Bethel                4          66
5)   Redlands              6          50
6)   St. Thomas            8          34
t7)   Central              N/A         33
t7)   Linfield              7          33
9)   Wartburg              3          29
10)   UW-Oshkosh           10           9
 
Dropped Out: UW-Platteville

RV)   UW-Platteville (7), Martin Luther (2), Whitworth (1)


Thanks to those who participated this week: 02 Warhawk, wm4, WW, art76, doolittledog, smedindy, desertcat1, TwoArmedScot and wartnight.

[02 Warhawk]

 
1)  UW-Whitewater (9)     90      ( 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1)
2)  St. John's            75      ( 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5)
t3)  Chapman               66      ( 2, 2, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5)
t3)  Bethel                66      ( 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 5, 8)
5)  Redlands              50      ( 3, 3, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 8)
t6)  St. Thomas            34      ( 4, 5, 5, 5, 8, 8, 9,10, -)
t6)  Central               33      ( 5, 6, 6, 6, 6, 8, 9, 9, -)
8)  Linfield              33      ( 4, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 8, 9, 9)
9)  Wartburg              29      ( 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 9,10,10)
10)  UW-Oshkosh             9      ( 7, 9, 9,10, -, -, -, -, -) 

RV)  UW-Platteville         7      ( 8,10,10,10,10, -, -, -, -)
RV)  Martin Luther          2      ( 9, -, -, -, -, -, -, -, -)
RV)  Whitworth              1      (10, -, -, -, -, -, -, -, -)

[WW]

Shout out to a couple voters who don't believe the Central-Wartburg game actually happened. Don't bogart that joint, my open-minded friends!

[02 Warhawk]

Shout out to a couple voters who don't believe the Central-Wartburg game actually happened. Don't bogart that joint, my open-minded friends!

LOL

Just one voter had Wartburg higher than Central this week. I won't single out who, but rather give them the change to explain if they choose to here.

There's a few other interesting ones as well, but I won't judge...I'm just here to tally up the totals and post the results. 

[jamtod]

Shout out to a couple voters who don't believe the Central-Wartburg game actually happened. Don't bogart that joint, my open-minded friends!

LOL

Just one voter had Wartburg higher than Central this week. I won't single out who, but rather give them the change to explain if they choose to here.

There's a few other interesting ones as well, but I won't judge...I'm just here to tally up the totals and post the results. 

I'm actually surprised there aren't more who kept Wartburg above Central.
In the D3football.com top 25, Wartburg is still higher and I think it can be fully justified.
Central won in OT by 1 point, at home. Ignore the goofiness of Central getting up big and blowing the lead and assume the HFA is worth at least that 1 point (in D3, there is some dispute whether the standard 3 applies).
Now factor in that Central has a loss, and it's 28-7 to a Dubuque team that Wartburg handled easily. H2H is meaningful, but I don't think it overrides everything else, especially when it's by 1, in OT, at home.


It's a very similar argument to Baylor-TCU a few years back when they both got left out of the playoff. Baylor beat TCU (narrowly) at home. But Baylor also lost to a mediocre West Virginia team.

[jamtod]

To be clear though, I'm not a poll voter.

[02 Warhawk]

Fair point, but in a top 25 poll I'm guessing many had Wartburg highly over ranked - top 10 maybe. So when Wartburg lost they probably had a hard time justifying on dropping them so low that Central would enter their poll above Wartburg. In my top 25 I didn't have Wartburg that high, so I had no problem putting Central above them this week. In these Region Fall polls, when a H2H upset occurs, it's a little easier to drop the losing team below the winning team - even when the winning team wasn't ranked the week before - just because we're only dealing with 10 teams...rather than 25.

For me, I put a ton of stock in H2H results more than anything else. If Team A and Team B have similar records, but Team A won H2H, Team A will be ranked ahead of Team B 10 out of 10 times in my poll. I still have St. John's over Bethel, Central over Wartburg, Redlands over Linfield and Chapman over Redlands. The exception being, once the winning team of a H2H match starts losing multiple games, then all bets are off. H2H is then no longer relevant in my mind. Like how nobody has UWEC ranked higher than St. Thomas. Or Moorhead ranked higher than St. John's. The winning teams in those H2H lost too many times during the year to be considered.

Where it gets tricky is when three solid teams all beat each other. For instance in the WIAC: UWL beat UWO, UWO beat UWP and UWP beat UWL. For this week I have UWP #8 and UWO and UWL not ranked. Reason being...UWP handily beat UWL by 18, and UWL smoked UWO by 28. I realize that UWP lost to UWO, but it was in the closing seconds of the game. Plus UWP played UWW tight in Whitewater, while UWO hasn't faced UWW yet. Not saying my logic is correct, but that's how I tried separating one team from that pack.