Now that TSN has sparked discussion on the list with its preseason polls,
and other ones are also coming out of the woodwork, I'm guessing it would be
interesting (and fun?) to start off Year Two of the College Hockey Dis-
cussion List Poll with a preseason edition.  Last year's HOCKEY-L poll was
pretty successful (thanks again to everyone who participated in it), and
with even more people (and more opinions!) on the list this year, we should
continue to get some interesting results out of it.
 
So what is all this about?  The College Hockey Discussion List Poll (or the
HOCKEY-L poll) is a poll of the top 15 men's ice hockey teams and is open to
all HOCKEY-L subscribers.  This is a private poll, and ALL RESPONSES WILL BE
KEPT STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL.  The only information that will be released will
be a composite of all the responses that were received.
 
Please remember that this is not a popularity contest, and I will not count
any responses that appear to be frivolous (I admit that in the preseason
version, it'll be a little difficult to tell the difference between a "friv-
olous" opinion and an honest one -- still, a team like Cornell, for example,
can't be legitimately considered #1 in a preseason poll).  In voting, try to
consider teams outside of the confer-ence(s) you usually follow.  Don't
forget that HOCKEY-L can provide a lot of information on what's going on
with teams you are not very familiar with.
 
It appears that the first on-ice non-exhibition action will be on October 16
or 17, so I'll set the deadline for submitting poll responses for Monday,
October 12 (hmm, seems to me there's something important about that day) at
midnight.  I'll post a composite of all the responses the following morning.
Responses received after the deadline will not be counted in the poll.
 
Please Email your rankings to:
 
     [log in to unmask]
 
Feel free to attach comments to your rankings as well.  Again, the indi-
vidual responses WILL NOT be made public.
 
I'll start running the regular-season HOCKEY-L poll the week after the pre-
season one is finished... more on that later.
 
The 46 Division I teams are:
 
ECAC                          Hockey East
----                          -----------
Brown                         Boston College
Clarkson                      Boston University
Colgate                       Maine
Cornell                       UMass-Lowell
Dartmouth                     Merrimack
Harvard                       New Hampshire
Princeton                     Northeastern
RPI                           Providence
St. Lawrence
Union
Vermont
Yale
 
CCHA                          WCHA
----                          ----
Bowling Green                 Colorado College
Ferris State                  Denver
Illinois-Chicago              Michigan Tech
Kent                          Minnesota
Lake Superior                 Minnesota-Duluth
Miami                         North Dakota
Michigan                      Northern Michigan
Michigan State                St. Cloud
Notre Dame                    Wisconsin
Ohio State
Western Michigan
 
Independents
------------
Air Force
Alabama-Huntsville
Alaska-Anchorage (WCHA affiliate member -- will participate in WCHA playoffs)
Alaska-Fairbanks (CCHA affiliate member)
Army
Mankato State
 
--
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86 and probably '94
LET'S GO RED!!
"I am never forget the day I first meet the great Lobachevsky.
 In one word, he tells me the secret to success in mathematics -- plagiarize.
 Plagiarize!  Let no one else's work evade your eyes!
 That's why the good Lord made your eyes, so don't shade your eyes.
 Plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize!  Only be sure to call it, please,
 'Research.'"
-- Tom Lehrer, "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky"