Thanks to those who sent in their votes for the HOCKEY-L preseason poll.
Now that the hockey season is under way (or at least real close to it), I'd
like to fire up the for-real College Hockey Discussion List Poll, starting
this week.
Most of what follows is repeated information, either from the posting about
the preseason poll or from last year's HOCKEY-L poll announcement. However,
I did want to address a couple of things that came up during the preseason
poll, so here goes:
* THE COLLEGE HOCKEY DISCUSSION 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. Although I am encour-
aging voters to send in their top 15 teams, if you can come up with only a
"partial" list of 10 or 12 or whatever number, that's fine too.
About "regionalism": 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.
However, 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
conference(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.
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 44 (at last count) 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
Alaska-Anchorage (WCHA affiliate -- will be seeded 10th in WCHA playoffs)
Alaska-Fairbanks (CCHA affiliate -- will be seeded 12th in CCHA playoffs)
Army
Have fun! Hope to hear from you.
--
To vote in the HOCKEY-L poll, send your response to:
[log in to unmask]
The deadline for responses is Tuesday at nidnight. The poll is released every
Wednesday morning.
Questions about the poll should be sent to [log in to unmask] .
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