Well, the response I've gotten on the HOCKEY-L poll has been quite positive,
so I'd like to use the Calvin and Hobbes method of "let's try it and see
what happens".  Thanks to all who sent me Email on this subject.
 
A number of people were concerned about the regionalism problem.  It's true
that most fans tend to be a lot more familiar with one conference than the
others, and not many people have seen all the top teams in action.  This
might prejudice potential voters, but I believe that HOCKEY-L subscribers
can't help but hear about the goings-on in all the conferences and in the
independents.  Even if you are focusing on just one league or team, you can
still get a general idea about how good other teams around the country are,
and how they stack up against each other and against your favorites.
Remember, the media polls are compiled by people who have not seen every
college hockey team play either (sometimes this is painfully obvious).  If
you can come up with some opinions, I'd encourage you to send 'em in.  But
if you'd rather not respond because you feel you'd be too biased to be fair,
then that's OK also.
 
In addition to coming up with a composite poll based on all the responses I
get, I'm thinking of creating two separate polls consisting of the responses
from Eastern and Western sites.  It would be interesting to see who in the
East gets highly rated in the West, and vice versa.
 
I'd like to make this a Top 15 poll, rather than a Top 10.  It seems a
little strange to stop at 10 (as some polls do) when the NCAA picks *12*
teams for the post-season.  A Top 20 is probably a bit much, but I think a
Top 15 would work well.  If you can think of only 10 teams to rank, go ahead
and send your ranking in -- I'm flexible :-)
 
One other suggestion I received was to maintain a list of eligible voters
and have only those people vote.  This might not be a bad idea at some
point, but I'd rather start out letting everyone who wants to send in a
response do so.  Hopefully, HOCKEY-L readers will take this seriously, and
we'll get some interesting results.  If the poll starts to turn into a
farce, then we may have to go with an assigned list of voters or something,
but I doubt that will happen.  Please don't crush my faith in my fellow
hockey-mad HOCKEY-L readers! :-)
 
This poll is aimed mainly at the Division I followers, since most of the
traffic on HOCKEY-L seems to deal with the teams in Division I.  However, I
know there are a number of you out there who follow Division III.  I en-
courage you to send in your rankings of Division III teams if possible, and
if I get some responses, I'll set up a Division III HOCKEY-L poll as well.
 
With all that background out of the way, I'd like to announce
 
* THE COLLEGE HOCKEY MAILING LIST POLL *
 
This poll of the top 15 men's ice hockey teams 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 (listing teams with 1-8 records
and the like).  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 how teams you are not very familiar with are doing.
 
Scores, standings, and highlights from the weekend action in college hockey
usually find their way to the list by Monday afternoon.  Feel free to send
in your rankings whenever you want, but the deadline for submitting poll
responses is TUESDAY at MIDNIGHT.  The HOCKEY-L poll will be posted on
Wednesday morning.  Responses received after the deadline will not be
counted in that week's composite poll.
 
I've set up a separate account to handle the poll responses, so 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.
 
The 45 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
Lake Superior                 Minnesota
Miami                         Minnesota-Duluth
Michigan                      North Dakota
Michigan State                Northern Michigan
Ohio State                    St. Cloud
Western Michigan              Wisconsin
 
Independents
------------
Air Force
Alabama-Huntsville
Alaska-Anchorage
Alaska-Fairbanks
Army
Kent State
Notre Dame
 
Have fun!  Hope to hear from you.
--
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86 and probably '94
LET'S GO RED!!
"I used to work in a delicatessen.  I got fired, though, because I would refuse
 to serve tongue to the customers.  I thought it was disgusting -- I don't like
 the idea of tasting something that might be tasting me back."
-- Elayne Boosler