Last year we ran a series of front-page reader polls asking you who would win each bracket in 2004. Obviously, this type of thing is a popularity contest in a sense, as well as a measure of how many fans each team has that visit the site on a regular basis, but we’re going to look back on reader picks from 2004 anyway.

East: You made “Whomever the NCAA moves from another region” the leader with 16.8%. Following was “Another East team” with 16.4%, Ithaca 15.4%, Springfield 13.1%, Rowan 13.0%, RPI 10.8%, Brockport State 8.0% and Montclair State 6.6%.

Rowan was the champ. Ithaca didn’t make the playoffs, though they were certainly more worthy than some teams who did. The NCAA moved the MAC to the East region shortly after our series of polls ran, so they were officially East teams last year. Shenandoah and Muhlenberg moved into the bracket from outside the region, as only five East teams qualified for the playoffs. And RPI? What were we thinking?

North: Mount Union got 57.3% of the vote, followed by Other (15.6%), Wheaton (7.5%), Wabash (5.8%), Baldwin-Wallace (5.1%), Wittenberg (5.0%) and Capital (3.7%).

Mount Union won in reality too. If we assign all the “Other” votes to Carthage then the poll looks really smart, but of course I’m sure there were Ohio Northern, Wooster and Augustana fans included, plus anyone from the MIAA, which didn’t even make our list of candidates.

South: “Other” led a fractured field with 31.8%, the most vocal of which were fans of Trinity (Texas), which didn’t make the list of candidates. After a second consecutive first-round exit, they might not make our list this year either. After that it was Bridgewater (Va.) with 17.6%, Lycoming at 10.6%, Hardin-Simmons at 10.1%, Christopher Newport and Hampden-Sydney tied with 8.1%, Mary Hardin-Baylor with 7.7% and Johns Hopkins with 6.1%.

Mary Hardin-Baylor won the bracket, of course. Lycoming didn’t qualify for the playoffs and wouldn’t have been in the South anymore anyway. But the lack of a clear favorite in July was reflected in November with a seemingly balanced bracket.

West: Defending national champ St. John’s led the way with 37.2% of the vote, followed by Linfield at 15.3%, Other at 15.1%, UW-La Crosse at 13.7%, “UW-Someone Else” at 9.8% and Wartburg at 8.8%.

Linfield won the bracket and the Walnut and Bronze. I expect they will be heavy favorites this year but there are still enough St. John’s fans on the site to sway some of the vote.

Vote your conscience, not your colors. You’ll look better in the end.