There is an interesting feature in this week's hockey-l poll (probably not
the only one, but I noticed it):
 
>  4   3 Minnesota            189   2 ----    3  ----   17
>  5  17 North Dakota       174   4 7.3  10  10   20
 
The numbers I'm commenting on are the number of ballots each team appeared on
and (in North Dakota's case) the lowest ballot position.  There are three
people who ranked UND no lower than tenth and Minnesota no higher than
sixteenth.  (Up front disclaimer: I am a Gopher fan, nevertheless, I find
this interesting in the abstract).
 
What North Dakota has going for it is a better record, but only by one game
(6-2 vs. 5-3, okay 5-4 if you include the exhibition against BU).  On the
other hand, every team Minnesota has played is ranked higher than any team
UND has played (not a subjective opinion, simply by the Hockey-l poll
itself), except the head-to-head meetings.  These last two games were both
won by Minnesota.  From the reports, the first was closely played, with
perhaps an edge going to the Sioux in quality of play, and the second was
dominated by UMn.
 
I'd be interested to hear the rationale for finding such a vast disparity in
favor of North Dakota.  Does the head-to-head series get drastically
discounted because it was in Minneapolis?  Have people seen enough of both
teams to be that much more impressed by North Dakota on the ice, regardless
of the outcomes?  Is the margin of victory posted by the Sioux so
astronomical that it catches people's eye?  I confess that the last figure is
one that I consider largely irrelevent in ranking teams, so I don't even know
what UND's scores look like.  Or is one game better in the standings the only
compelling question?  I'm interested in learning how other people go about
making their selections.
 
J. Michael Neal
 
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