I agree with Mike and Nathan that Western Michigan hasn't received the respect in the polls that it probably deserves. I also thought the same of Bowling Green early on. However, I'm doing something this year that is helping me understand the fundamentals of polls. This year I'm taking part in the HOCKEY-L poll. And I would recommend it to anyone who either complains about polls or otherwise has an interest. Previously, if my team had a good weekend I would scan the polls the next week and either celebrate their advances or be angered by the lack of demonstrated respect. What I'm finding by taking part myself is that there are more issues involved than I had thought. For example, if there is a team that has done well on any weekend, I must consider: - where that team was in the poll for the previous week? - did they do better than the teams ahead of them? For any team to move up another team has to move down and if all of them did well too, it's more difficult. It's very hard to move a team down in the poll even if they haven't lost any games. - if a team did poorly, how much of a drop is reasonable? Is there an absolute limit to the number of places a team can drop or is it entirely dependent on their performance and their neighbor's performance? - are there any teams previously outside the top 15 that deserve to be moved into the top 15? This is pretty difficult because it means I must consider all Div. I teams, not just those currently in the top 15. If there are any, who moves down? - and finally, for any team, do I really think they are better than those below them and worse than those above? This isn't meant to say that polls don't sometimes deserve criticism. I would only suggest that, if you are interested in what goes into generating a poll, you have the perfect opportunity to find out right here. You may be suprised at what you learn. I certainly was. -- Matt Wickey LSSU '86 CIMLINC Inc. National Champs 88 92 94 [log in to unmask] Go LAKERS! HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.