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More soccer polling: #10 MSoc/#3 WSoc - Printable Version

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More soccer polling: #10 MSoc/#3 WSoc - washingtonismoney - 11-04-2014

Coaches' poll showing continued strength, though not sure why MSoc dropped this week.

Re: More soccer polling: #10 MSoc/#3 WSoc - Viking_Guy - 11-04-2014

WiM--

They dropped MSoc because they vaulted up Creighton and C.al, and didn't drop UCLA below us.  Don't know why Creighton vaulted up so much; they only beat RPI #46 Marquette and #131 DePaul, yet jumped over both North Carolina and Stanford, who both won 1 (against Depaul-like competition) and tied 1 against far superior competition (UCLA and UVa).  Better indicator will be a game against #19 Providence this week.  And C.al beat the Bruins in LA, albeit on a soft goal, and San Diego.

The larger question for men's soccer - they need a WIN over top flight competition.  They've lost to Creighton and UW and tied C.al once and UCLA twice.  Other than that, their best win is probably either Oregon State (#41 in RPI), USF (#45) or UCSB (#48).  I hope they can take out both the Beavers and the Huskies this weekend, but that's a tall order.

One other ranking note: yep, the field hockey coaches did it.  They dropped Stanford below UConn - you remember, the team we beat 3-1 in Storrs?  The Huskies beat #14 Temple 4-3, while Stanford had to work far too hard to put away a bad (#64 out of 78 teams) UC Davis team 2-1.  But still, um, head-to-head?

More worrisome, the win dropped Stanford to #5 in the RPI.  I'm hoping if they win two games this weekend, they can make it back up to #4, but none of their possible opponents is a ratings boost.  And they very well could have to play Pacific on their home turf in their first game, as UoP plays UC Davis for the right to play the Cardinal.  Talk about a no-win game - play the host, who is #48 in the RPI, or play a team that beating actually hurts your cause.  Have to hope for some upsets in other tourneys and attrition.

But I'm betting no matter where they end up, the NCAA will seed them so that they have to travel at least once before the final four, and likely play an East Coast power on their home turf at 8 AM Pacific time to advance.

VG


Re: More soccer polling: #10 MSoc/#3 WSoc - Viking_Guy - 11-04-2014

Actually, the WFH seeding matters more than I thought.  There is an opening play-in round November 12 of three games among the selected teams with the six lowest RPIs, I think on the homefield of the higher ranked team.  The winners of those games are matched against the top three seeds in the next round (and yes, field hockey does the weird NCAA-only thing of calling the next set of games the first round).

Here's the rub - I thought, like soccer, that the higher-seeded team hosted the next game.  Instead, I *think* the top four seeds all host four-team pods for games on back-to-back days November 15 and 16. The gamedays are set, so I would assume there is a 4-team pod system.  How much do you want to bet that, if Stanford would legitimately be #3 or 4 and say Penn State is #5 or 6, those numbers won't be flipped so that the NCAA can minimize travel costs (in the name of "security," they always argue, with principles that always seem to advantage teams in the more geographically concentrated eastern U.S.) by not having to send three teams west?  It will be an interesting test of seeding integrity.  And I know, that's not a word that should be uttered in any contiguity with the NCAA.

In any case, first things first.  Win two this weekend!

VG