Matthew writes: >Last night, I spoke with a friend of mine who is on the RPI hockey team, >and he said that eventhough they all know that the poll doesn't mean >much, it's still getting them down. They just can't figure it out.. First - please remember it isn't a poll. There are significant differences between a poll (opinions of many people) and TCHCR (program which attempts to compute an unbiased ranking). The huge one is that a poll lists teams in order of how good people think they are. TCHCR lists teams in order of how well the program determines them to have performed in the games under consideration. TCHCR does not determine how good teams are. It is entirely possible for a team that is the best in the country to be ranked lower than #1 because of a weak schedule, etc. But people vote in the polls based on how good they think teams are. The goal of TCHCR has been to get rid of biases (as much as possible) and rank teams based on how they have actually performed. The best thing that can come out of all this is education. The RPI players shouldn't take it seriously. But if they don't know how TCHCR works, it's like this unknown thing out there telling them they're the 34th best team in the country (now 32). All they see is a number. Maybe their feelings would be different if they knew more about how the rankings are determined. In the interests of countering Bob Croce's article with education on this matter, Matthew, if you'd like to send me the address of your friend, I'll send him by US mail some documentation I have on the system that he and the other players can look at. After seeing it, they may consider the ranking more valid - or they may find flaws in it no one has thought of before (which would be great). Either way, I think it helps to learn more about it. We've had the opportunity here on hockey-l to discuss trends weekly and ask questions, but people who don't read h-l don't get to do this. I'd also be willing to put together a composite of questions and answers from the past if Matthew or maybe Tony Hejna would like to receive it and forward it to anyone. It may provide some insight into this particular case. You guys can let me know. I sent this to everyone because this is how I think we should respond to yesterday's inflammatory Times Union article. - mike