The polls aren't worth spending a lot of time discussing, but here is a case that really deserves mention. I nominate Western Michigan for the dubious honor of Rodney Dangerfields of college hockey. No respect at all. The WMEB poll came out this week, and where was WMU? Not in the top 10. But they're tied for first in the CCHA along with Michigan and MSU, and they are 8-2-0 overall. Meanwhile, they trail Michigan (#3), BG (#7), and LSSU (#8) in the WMEB poll. Stronger evidence...their results to date. >Western Michigan CCHA > H 10/13/95 W 11 Brock 2 nI > H 10/14/95 W 9 Western Ontario 2 nI > A 10/20/95 W 7 Michigan 2 > H 10/21/95 L 2 Michigan 3 > H 10/27/95 W 4 Providence 1 nc > H 10/28/95 L 4 Providence 5 nc ot > A 11/03/95 W 3 Notre Dame 2 > H 11/04/95 W 6 Notre Dame 2 > A 11/10/95 W 6 Lake Superior 5 > A 11/11/95 W 3 Ferris State 2 > > GP W L T GF GA >OVERALL 10 8 2 0 55 26 >LEAGUE 6 5 1 0 27 16 If I told you of a team that had blown out Michigan on the road and beaten LSSU on the road, and had only lost to the first place team in the CCHA (Michigan) by one and the first place team in HE (Providence) in overtime, and then I told you that team wasn't even in the national top 10, you'd probably want to know just who was voting for that top 10. :-) Is it the old unknown team syndrome? If MSU had rolled up the same results, would they be in the top 10 - and maybe even above at least BG & LSSU? With the release of CHODR by Tim and Robin yesterday, let's see how the Broncos fare there: > Division I Offense Defense Overall >Rank Team Record Rating Rank Rating Rank Rating >------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > 1 Colorado College 5 0 3 5.89 2 2.88 6 3.01 > 2 Boston University 5 1 0 6.37 1 3.37 18 3.00 > 3 Lake Superior 6 2 0 4.55 8 2.10 2 2.45 > 4 Michigan 6 1 0 4.86 5 2.55 3 2.32 > 5 Western Michigan 6 2 0 4.71 7 2.61 4 2.10 IMO, CHODR has proven itself in the past to have been a pretty decent analysis of a team's offensive and defensive capabilities. Looks like there's not much difference between Michigan, LSSU, and WMU in that regard. But (sing along now) which of these teams is not like the others... Finally, I ran the new-and-improved RPI just to see where WMU came out...for those who place a lot of weight upon such things, take a gander at this: >RPI Opp OppOpp >RK G W L T Win% RK Win% RK Win% RK RPI >1 Boston University 6 5- 1- 0 83.33 3 61.20 10 52.26 13 64.50 >2 Western Michigan 8 6- 2- 0 75.00 10 65.08 5 51.33 14 64.12 Just about any way you cut it, it seems clear that WMU is not getting the respect they deserve. But if I were them, I would prefer it that way. Now that I have drawn attention to them, they will probably lose two this weekend. :-) --- --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93 ***** Unofficial Merrimack Hockey home page located at: ***** ***** http://www.tiac.net/users/machnik/MChockey/MChockey.html ***** HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.